Book Chapter

What Is Dance Criticism?

Mattingly, Kate

2023

Overview

Chapter 1 examines writing by John Martin, the dance critic for the New York Times from 1927 to 1962, noting the influence of Richard Boleslavsky’s lectures on Martin’s theories of modern dance, Martin’s attention to artists’ economic needs and priorities, as well as Martin’s foreclosure of possibilities for artists of color like Hemsley Winfield, Katherine Dunham, and Asadata Dafora. This chapter highlights Martin’s formulation of kinesthetic engagement or “inner mimicry,” which he developed from Boleslavsky’s concept of an “invisible bond” linking performers and audiences. Against a notion of Martin as an “apologist” for modern dance, this chapter reveals how he generated the terms and frameworks for white modern dance and identified white artists to be its standard-bearers. By placing Martin’s articles alongside those in Ebony magazine and the New York Age, this chapter exposes how Martin devalued the work of Black artists, and his assessments and criteria continue to percolate through a century of critics’ writing.

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Subject: Asadata Dafora / Black artists / Dance and Music / Ebony magazine / John Martin / Katherine Dunham / kinesthetic engagement / modern dance / New York Age
• ISBN: 0813069637, 9780813069630