Crisis of Criticism: Short, draft thoughts

From the introduction:

"The rising significance of community-based cultures, the increased targeting of niche markets, the dissolution of the boundaries between high and low culture, and the concomitant ethic and geographic diversity of audiences for culture have lessened and even delegitimized the need for dominant, centralized critical voices."

Response:

I can see how, 14 years later, this works into what's going on with ballet. Why does ballet criticism exist when there are resources like the Ballet Bag? The 'webzine' has a section for ballet newbies and also caters content to the dancers themselves. They reach a range, but use a friendly, conversational tone. They do speak critically about ballet, but articles have more permanence. It's not just about reviewing one performance. In their review of Manon, they give themselves the space to talk about what makes a killer performance. It's different for everyone, but it's nice to see a critic (or dance writing) be so transparent. I wonder if the Ballet Bag people would call themselves critics?

I think now is a really important time for ballet. Writers should be taking advantage of the spotlight ballet has been thrown into. They should be using reviews as a way to write about bigger issues. Most of the performances will have already happened by the time most get around to reading the reviews. Most of the performances are sold out anyway. I understand the need to be descriptive, but most ballet companies are filming their work anyway (take Alice in Wonderland at the Royal). What's wrong with linking to a slideshow or sample of the music, and using the rest of the word count to talk about a bigger issue that is at stake?

Alice seemed like a great opportunity to talk about the challenge of the story ballet, or the financial constraints of making new work. Instead, we just got words like "family friendly" and "dazzling."

Additionally, Manon could have been reviewed with the idea of exploring stage chemistry. How cool would it have been to see an accompanying slideshow of great stage pairs? Or, how could you sell Manon to an inexperienced audience today? It's sexy and dramatic — it definitely has cultural relevancy. Why not write 10 Reasons you should see Manon?