I am writing this letter in response to Kelly Kleiman’s review of the “Equal Footing/Equal Earing” festival which was printed on June 21, 2002.
First, Kleiman devoted her entire opening paragraph to an outdated understanding of the “downtown” New York dance scene. For some reason Kleiman would like to draw a relationship between cutting-edge performance taking place downtown in both New York and Chicago. It would have taken a short conversation with the curators to realize that there was no meaning behind bringing this experimental concert to downtown Chicago, other than the venue happens to be downtown. Her discussion on this matter did not help the reader place the performance in any kind of context. The experimental dance scene in New York has not been referred to as the “downtown” scene since the late 1980s. Experimental and cutting-edge dance is now happening all over the city and often in Brooklyn.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I will not deny that writing about contemporary dance is a difficult proposition. It takes writers who have respect and genuine interest in this contemporary form; not writers who really prefer traditional jazz dancing, story ballets, or modern dances from the early 1900s and use these preferences to influence their writing. It also takes writers who have actively sought out past and current knowledge about contemporary dance and are able to make use of this information in their writing. These are the writers who can criticize as much as they like, for they will have the respect of the artists being reviewed.
Are we having a dialogue about dance criticism yet?
