Art in a Critic-Free Zone (Part 2)
With the demise of traditional arts coverage, is a new “Fifth Estate” on social media serving mainstream and fringe arts with critical coverage?
Art in a Critic-Free Zone (Part 1)
Some 80% of professional newspaper critics employed 20 years ago no longer make a living at their craft. How has this loss of informed criticism changed the field?
Highlights from the Dance/USA Staff Residency Program in Kansas City, MO
In 2016 a Dance/USA staff member spent 10 days in Kansas City exploring the local dance community. Learn about the Dance/USA Staff Residency Program and the Kansas City dance community.
Dance Criticism Needs a Paradigm Shift
Who do critics write for? Do informed arts patrons need something different than artists? What about the artists, who decry the demise of dance criticism, yet blast the critic as ill-informed when a bad review runs?
How Much Arts Journalism Is Too Much Arts Journalism?
Anecdotal and other reports note the obvious: classical dance audiences
are aging and declining, and new work seems to have a hard time gaining
consistent audiences. Many of us agreed on the need to develop
audiences, and out of those conversations author Robert Bettmann, who founded a small arts magazine, Bourgeon to help artists develop audiences. But the question arises: are publications like these part of hte problem or solution in engaging new and existing audiences.
Upping the Ante on Writing About Dance
Good dance writing informs potential audiences
about interesting dance in their midst, helps acquaint presenters and
funders with artists’ output to frame artists’ work within a wider
cultural, artistic and socio-political context. With shrinking space for dance coverage at traditional media outlets, new forms are taking hold. Learn how a collaborative community-based effort to publish high-quality dance writing is taking hold in one city. Lisa Kraus, founder of thINKing Dance, reports.
Ten Steps To Enhancing Dance Writing in Your Community
Want to jump-start dance writing opportunities in your city or region? Check out these 10 tips from founder of thINKing Dance in Philadelphia.
What’s the Score?
Does sport have anything to do with ballet? Artistry poses infinite questions. Sport is finite. It ends. It pits two
teams, or several individuals, against each other to compete for one
very decided, satisfying goal: who has the most points? Who was first to
reach the finish line? These aren’t questions we ask about ballet.Read and discuss this timeless and timely issue: athlecism and artistry. We want to hear what you think.
Saving Our Collective Memory
Are we ignoring or squandering our 20th century modern dance legacy? As if the public agony of the Martha Graham Dance Company weren’t
enough, the tragedy of the Cunningham company’s disappearance should be a
wake-up call to all American dance companies and arts funders. Dance critic Robert Johnson examines this issue.
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Reports of the Death of the American Dance Critic
Like great American humorist Mark Twain, who remarked that “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” upon hearing that a New York journal published his obituary, the same holds true for the long-reported dying art form of dance criticism. Writer Christine Jowers contends that dance criticism in America is far from dead. It is evolving. Read more in her response to a recent article in The Atlantic.