Writing in the Dark, Dancing in The New Yorker

by Arlene Croce

The best of America's best writer on dance
For twenty-five years, Arlene Croce was The New Yorker's dance critic, a post the magazine created expressly for her. Her entertaining, forthright, passionate reviews and essays revealed the logic and history of ballet, modern dance, and their postmodern variants to a generation of theatergoers. This volume contains her most significant and provocative pieces—over a fourth of which never appeared in book form—covering classical ballets, the rise of George Balanchine, the careers of Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, and Merce Cunningham, and the controversies surrounding many of the twentieth century’s great dance companies.  

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

784 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2000

About the author

Arlene Louise Croce was an American dance critic. She founded Ballet Review magazine in 1965. From 1973 to 1996 she was a dance critic for The New Yorker magazine.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Croce's essays from The New Yorker, where she was the dance critic from the 1970s through the early 90s. Croce is mostly interested in ballet, and is probably one of the best writers on Balanchine. Fascinating reading that covers some of the most important moments in modern American dance history.