Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"Critical feedback is crucial to any company or performer: mediocre or world-class, ethnic or classical."

The other side to dance critics:




As is discussed in the linked article, critics like Margaret Putnam typically have quite a bad rap in the eyes of dancers and dance companies alike. This isn't too far fetched a dislike either for critics like Putnam have been know to be as meticulous as to criticize a dancer for 'not having their eyelashes curled'. What is frequently overlooked though, is how crucial critics like Putnam are to the dance world, and to the world of the arts in general. It takes critics to keep the public informed and able to distinguish what is good and what is bad art, which in turn pushes art establishments to continue to strive for excellence. Who's to say that people wouldn't start buying cheaper tickets to less excellent dance companies simply because they don't know any better. I'd like to think that people are able to make a better judgement call than that, but sometimes I've noticed general audience members' lack of ability to distinguish between small nuisances that as a dancer watching dance, can really make a world of a difference in the perception of a performance. 

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