"Think it's easy, Mr. Snarkier-Than-Thou? You try writing a play."
Or to put it another way, Those who can, do. Those who can't, review!
Need a critic be a practioner in a medium in order to be credible reviewing work within that medium? Herein the Orange Group will explore the question. For novelists to review books is common; for playwrights to review theatre, somewhat less so. Francois Truffaut and Patti Smith wrote film and music criticism, respectively, before prioneering new approaches to filmmaking and pop music. But these scattered examples may be the exceptions that prove the rule: Many working critics, including plenty of very good ones, claim expertise in nothing more than their own taste.
We begin by surveying our fellow Fellows' experience as dancers. Sound off below!
My upbringing was full of nonprofessional dancing, I came from a dancing family. My grandfather used to pay my sister and I a quarter to dance to Ray Charles' "What I Say" and later as an adolescent I attended a lot of dance parties and school dances. It was the best way to get close to girls. One night in college, I taught two young ladies how to do the Electric Slide.
ReplyDeleteFrom 1985 to 1990, I saw a lot of modern dance and read dance criticism in the New York Times and Village Voice while living in North Jersey and New York but wasn't writing about it. I saw all the big names of the period: Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Bill T. Jones, etc. This decade, I've written a handful of dance reviews while on staff at the Dallas Morning News and lately have been writing freelance dance criticism for the paper and will probably be doing more.
I'm looking forward to our dance workshop today. I hope I don't hurt myself.
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ReplyDeletehmm, I don’t think one has to have a dance background to write about dance, particularly for a lay audience. there are all sorts of associations and allusions one can make to help readers get a feel for the piece. on the other hand, of course knowing even a little background helps. me? I don’t write about dance, though there have been performances I wanted to cover, either because of previous performances of the work or the group. I have a bit of a dance background (11 years of training—not that I am particularly graceful now, or was then; a long love of ballet and a childhood diet of Fred and Ginger movies). I also had years of music lessons, so it is sometimes the score that draws me into performances.
ReplyDeleteFirst off: What a great group pic. Who's the talented photographer.
ReplyDeleteYeah, so I'm old school b-boy, king of the centipede (what you youngsters call the worm). Recently I have evolved my style into an absurdist/expressionist/modern kinda retro hillbilly salsa funk. Don't usually dance so early in the AM. What time does the bar open?
A hairdresser once told me, "Never date a man who doesn't dance. It tells you something about his soul."
ReplyDeleteSame applies to a lady, no?
But I have zero grace, a high percentage of self-consciousness, and, as I've already told Alicia, I throw elbows like Karl Malone (Alicia swore she didn't know of this bruise delivering Mailman). But I digress.
In a job interview with USA Today's Dixie Vereen -- I can't remember if she was related to Ben Vereen -- she said, looking at my resume seems like I could be in photography or writing, and if I could do ANYTHING what would it be?
"I'd be a dancer."
I love to dance -- but I'm a freestyler, can't follow directions. So don't expect any fancy footwork here.
ReplyDeleteI've reviewed dance as a component of theatrical productions many times, but the last time I critiqued a dance performance in isolation – you know, The Dance – was in sixth grade gym class, when I berated my square-dance partner Megan Bonsall for do-si-doing when she should have allemanded left, and damn well knew it. Harsh, yes; but I'm confident she thinks of me to this day, whenever she's called upon to, you know, Star Promenade, or whatever the hell.
ReplyDeleteI tend to avoid using the terminology of dance if I can get away with it, in part because I think all those italicized French words gum up the copy, and in part because I think it's my job to offer readers a glimpse of the thing, instead of a choreographer's notes about the thing.
And yeah, gay dude who can't dance over here. Don't say you heard it from me, but trust me on this: Our numbers are legion.