John Perreault, 78

John Perreault, Critic, Artist and Poet, Dies at 78
by William Grimes, The New York Times, September 8, 2015

Jerry Tallmer, 93

Jerry Tallmer, Theater Critic and Creator of Obies, Dies at 93

by Douglas Martin, The New York Times, November 10, 2014

Howard Smith, 77

Howard Smith, Trend-Spotting Columnist, Dies at 77
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, May 1, 2014

Associate Press to drop coverage of dance, opera and Off-Broadway

To Be, Or Not To Be (Covered By The AP)
by Howard Sherman, NPR, June 20, 2013

Conversing with film critic J. Hoberman

"MANOHLA DARGIS In one of Jonas Mekas’s first columns for The Voice he wrote that 'every breaking away from the conventional, dead, official cinema is a healthy sign.' There was an activist element to his rhetoric, and soon after he started writing for The Voice he decided that it wasn’t enough to be a critic, he had to become, as he put it, a near-midwife, so he could hold and protect 'all the beautiful things that I saw happening in cinema and that were either butchered or ignored by my colleague writers and by the public.' He was fighting, to borrow the title of a book on him, to free the cinema."

J. Hoberman Talks About Village Voice and Film Culture
by Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott, The New York Times, January 20, 2012

Dance critic Tobi Tobias remembers Bill Como

Admittedly, Bill and I were an odd match. We must have disagreed about three-quarters of the issues that came our way. Our artistic taste was light years apart. Just for instance, he was a Béjart guy; I was a Balanchine gal. (Need any more be said?)

-- Tobi Tobias on Dance Magazine's Bill Como

Beginning in the dynamic 1970s, Tobi Tobias was my first review editor at Dance Magazine at the launch of my professional writing career and, along with Burt Supree at The Village Voice, eagerly sent me out on a million quests for what's interesting in dance across all kinds of traditions and techniques. (So, now you know who to thank--or blame, perhaps--as I do.) Here's a spot-on, gorgeous blog post about the start of her own dance writing career and her working relationship with Bill Como, the magazine's editor-in-chief from 1970-1988, who died in January 1989.

The Boss: Personal Indulgences No. 21
by Tobi Tobias, Seeing Things, ArtsJournal.com, January 16, 2012

Greg Tate remembers Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron, R.I.P.
by Greg Tate, The Village Voice, May 31, 2011

Jill Johnston, 81

Jill Johnston, Critic Who Wrote 'Lesbian Nation,' Dies at 81
by William Grimes, The New York Times, September 21, 2010

Georgianna Nienaber reflects on Jill Johnston (Huffington Post, September 20, 2010)

Jill Johnston Web site and biography

Bon Voyage to Jilly by Ingrid Nyeboe

Book review: Feiffer's memories

'Backing Into Forward - A Memoir' by Jules Feiffer

by David Carr, The New York Times, March 18, 2010

Elizabeth Zimmer on the death of dance criticism

The Crisis in Criticism: The Economy, the Internet and the Death of Dance Writing
by Elizabeth Zimmer, In Dance, June 2009

Volunteering for BurtSupree.com

photo (c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Marta Renzi and her son, Amos Wolff, were among many fans, friends and former colleagues of the late Burt Supree volunteering to transcribe his Village Voice reviews for the new BURT SUPREE site, yesterday at Dance Theater Workshop's lobby. Burt was my first editor at the Voice and is still dearly missed.

Help launch BurtSupree.com

[As one of those once-young dance writers mentored by the wonderful and much-missed Burt Supree, I look forward to this new Web site and hope you will lend your time to the effort to get it up and running. Thank you!]

*****************************************

Bring-Your-Own Laptop and Rescue History!

A website celebrating the writing of Burt Supree is nearing completion.

Burt wrote dance reviews for The Village Voice from 1976 until his death in 1992, also covering children's theater, and editing/mentoring many writers who continue to work as reviewers of dance.

Please come help us finish transcribing his Voice reviews in preparation for the launch of BURTSUPREE.COM in early October. You'll get a chance to gather with other artists, writers and friends while celebrating the wonderful voice of a writer whose humor, insight and warmth were an integral part of the dance community for two decades.

Spend a few hours, or just stop by and transcribe a review or two.

Tuesday September 16, 3pm - 7pm

Dance Theater Workshop Lobby
219 West 19th Street, Manhattan

RSVP to Kesa Huey at Kesa@dtw.org or 212-691-6500 ext. 377 or to Marta Renzi at marta.renzi@gmail.com or 845.353.0854.

Critic LeFevre deals with the dis

The real challenge for dance in the 21st century isn't so much the lack of salaried or staff positions for dance critics. It's the ongoing need for audience outreach and education about dance--especially concert dance--as an integral, relevant, aesthetically necessary, rock-your-world part of everyday life.

Amen! Twin Cities dance critic Camille LeFevre talks sense in Culturally Relevant? A Dance Critic Looks to the Territory Ahead. To read her complete essay, click here.

Here are a few things I'll add to LeFevre's rundown of the issue:

People who are disturbed about the current purging or demotion to freelance status of dance critics by major publications like The Village Voice need to know that dance critics have always been dispensable to these publishers. Yes, The Village Voice offered 40-year veteran staffer Deborah Jowitt the insulting status of freelancer but, a few years prior, they decreed that actual freelancers with talent, expertise and similar track records (Tobi Tobias and, to a lesser extent, myself) were no longer welcome. Dance editor Elizabeth Zimmer was ordered to cease assigning reviews and features to freelancers. To the best of my knowledge, no one in any position of consequence at the Voice at that time lifted her voice in protest. And that's why I wrote in this blog that now the final shoe has dropped.

Moreover, decreasing space and pay were early signs of the dwindling status of dance writers--on staff or freelance--at the Voice, and this entire matter is a story of disrespect and disempowerment that the dance community, if it is indeed one, will have to address if we are ever to have safe, supportive and encouraging conditions for able writers in our field in this city.

Do we want dance journalism? If so, what do we want from it? What are the goals and objectives of good dance journalism? What form or forms should this journalism take? These are questions we will need to answer as we move forward.

My purely personal response is to ride with this opportunity to evolve new forms and new relationships with the art of dance--something that, in any case, has been silently pulling at my heart for the past few years. While I do not know where this will lead, I do know that the role of critic--at least, as it appears to be officially practiced here in New York--interests me less and less. Like LeFevre, I'm after something "integral, relevant, aesthetically necessary" that rocks the world, and sometimes we need a good swift kick in the butt in order to get there. Over the years, haven't most of us expressed dissatisfaction with the shape of dance writing in our town? Sometimes good and necessary change is first heralded by decline.

Anyway, that's how I'm looking at it today. There are plenty of conditions out in the world that genuinely disturb me. This is no longer one of them.

Film critics "endangered species," too

Now on the Endangered Species List: Movie Critics in Print
by David Carr, The New York Times, April 1, 2008

Times reports on Jowitt and Lee firings

Firings at the Voice
by Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times, March 29, 2008

The last shoe drops at The Village Voice

Well, if what I'm hearing is true, the final shoe has dropped at The Village Voice. After 40 years of service to the dance field, dance critic Deborah Jowitt is gone, although some are questioning whether the term "fired" (used in an ArtsJournal post by fledgling blogger and former Voice dance editor Elizabeth Zimmer) is correct. More will be revealed, as my late, great mother-in-law would have said.

As a former Voice dance freelancer, similarly kicked to the curb after decades of hard work and decreasing pay, space and respect, I have to say that dance criticism is a miserable profession. I recommend it to nobody in his or her right mind.