My magnum opus as a dance writer is not available here, but is in the Fall, 1997, issue of Ballet Review and is entitled Four Decades of Agon. It took more than half a year of my life and I'm proud of it; it's a rumination on the fragile and ephemeral nature of choreography as well as a love letter to George Balanchine. What is available here is divided into four categories:
Avant-propos: These essays were written originally for
alt.arts.ballet, my USENET hangout. Since 1998, I've posted more frequently at Ballet Talk, where the discussions are moderated. They were written quickly, and usually directly after seeing a performance. I have elected to only "lightly edit" these pieces as I present them here; all the Croce-isms and Denby-isms have been left intact. I owe greatly to those two writers, who along with Lincoln Kirstein, taught me how to look at dance. Their turns of a phrase become imprinted in one's mind; sometimes one doesn't even realize when one is stealing.The pieces were meant as a record of what I saw, not as infallible judgment. It's strange for me to look at some of them; my reporting style has changed since the earliest flippant essays. Also, as time has passed, often I no longer agree with what I said. Sometimes I didn't get my facts correct, but I am not a newspaper critic, and have no editorial or research staff. Grammar and style have been corrected but if I felt a change to editorial content was necessary, it's been added in a postscript. Even those who write about dance are changeable and fallible, and I hope leaving the pieces as I wrote them will encourage you to look at dance writers as having yet another opinion, not the only one. Before reading any of my reviews, I encourage you to read an essay of mine entitled
A Note on Reviewing. I think it puts these essays in the proper perspective.©2000 Leigh Witchel. All rights reserved.
These pages last updated on December 27, 2000
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