Search the Products Store
Search the Book Store
clog dancing Book Store Index
Privacy Policy
Copyright Notice
Home
|
|
Writing in the Dark, Dancing in The New Yorker |
Author: Arlene Croce
Published: 2005-09-26 |
List price: $24.95
Our price: $24.95
|
Usually ships in 24 hours
As of: November 21st, 2008 09:35:27 AM
|
|
|
Customer comments on this selection.
 A somewhat disappointing collection
Love her or hate her, Arlene Croce was considered the queen bee of dance criticism from the mid-70s to her retirement in 1999. Three previous volumes of her dance criticism (Afterimages, Going to the Dance, and Sight&Sound) have already been published. "Writing in the Dark" takes some of the pieces from her three previous volumes, and then adds her more recent writings, including two of her most controversial essays, "Discussing the Undiscussable" and "Dimming the Lights." The first was her famous refusal to review or even see Bill T. Jones' work, calling it "victim art." The essay ended up as a rant against 60s permissiveness, the decline of the art critic, pornography, and sundry topics. The second essay, along with "The Balanchine Show," was a stinging criticism of the New York City Ballet after Balanchine's death and Peter Martins' reign. The last essay included in the book is a negative review of the Kirov's "new-old" reconstruction of Sleeping Beauty.
I must say that as a collection of essays, "Writing in the Dark" is inferior to her earlier three collections. For one, many of her best pieces were inexplicably left out of the anthology. The Arlene Croce of "Writing in the Dark" is a nastier figure than her three earlier anthologies. She also seems more limited, since the vast majority of her essays in "Writing" are about the New York City Ballet and her favorites like Twyla Tharp and Paul Taylor. Essays that should have been included are too numerous, but I can name off the top of my head a wonderful review of Richard Buckle's biography of Diaghilev, a poignant obituary for Balanchine, and a spirited defense of Kenneth MacMillan's oft-maligned ballet Mayerling. There was her very heartfelt appreciation for the dance critic Edwin Denby that was in "Sight and Sound" but omitted again. Who knows why?
Then again, the pieces in "Writing" were picked by Croce, and this is maybe how she most wanted to be remembered. Croce is undeniably intelligent, articulate, and sometimes she can be dashingly witty. For example, this is her description of a performance of Kenneth MacMillan's "Manon": " 'Madame, I am Anthony Dowell. Notice my turns, my perfect developpe into attitude front.' And her answer was, 'If you're Anthony Dowell, I must be Antoinette Sibley. Let's have a Sibley-Dowell pas de deux.' And they did." This is Croce at her best, able to be biting and charming at the same time.
On the other hand, Croce can come across as unkind, snobby, and elitist. She seems to have been a knee-jerk political conservative, and her rants against multiculturalism and "victim art" may have had some truth to them, but they also had an undeniably ugly tone. Even she admits in her forward that parts of "Discussing the Undiscussable" embarrass her now. In her early days, she gave a warm glowing review of the Ballet Trockaderos (the men-on-pointe parody ballet company) but that review also had some curious remarks about gay people and feminists that makes me cringe: "There are homosexual balletomanes who celebrate art for its distortion of women, while insulted feminists denounce it, but the two groups operate -- from opposite ends -- on the same scale of confusion." Her reviews became increasingly negative, and even had a tone of self-pity as she sighed about the "hard times" that have befallen art critics, which seem hypocritical considering she had one of the cushiest jobs imaginable in the art critic circle.
In summary, "Writing in the Dark" unfortunately has lumped together many of her most negative essays. If you want Croce at her most insightful, I suggest getting all three of her earlier volumes. For one, there's more continuity to her writing in those earlier books, as well as more diversity.
 Arlene Croce and Bill T. Jones
Since Arlene Croce critized Bill T. Jones's 'Still/Here' without seeing it, I'll critize her book without reading it. I did read her original attack in the New Yorker.
Croce's attack on Jones was rightly received by the dance world with repugnance and disbelief. I'm not surprised to read that she has no background in dance; she is also a shoddy human being.
Buying this book puts money in the pocket of a monstrous person and her publisher. Avoid it -- and her -- like the plague.
|
|
Our clog dancing book picks:
|
|
Search the clog dancing Products Store
LCS Amazon Store 2.5 © 2008
|