Tricky Business

How the heck can someone be expected to decide who to honor, "give a good review," or name as Excellent when it comes to dance?

Ah, this question comes up so much in my life.  Mostly, it's prompted in conversation upon my mention that I'm a "dance writer."  Firstly, I'm usually asked "So...like a dance critic?"  Arg, how I hate the use of that word - critic - mainly because of the undeniable negative connotations that you can often sense instantly in the tone of voice of the person who dares to utter the word.  Secondly, I'm usually asked, "So what do you think is good dance or a good performance?"  Here arises problem #2....the absolute and irrefutable capability of myself or anyone, as far as I'm concerned, to be able to quantify an art form like dance as such.  I mean, here they are asking the girl who will love (with no shame, might I add) Britney Spears until the day she dies, yet adores puppet shows, thinks John Cage's 4'33" is one of the most fascinating things in performance history, stops to actually watch subway performers, and still feels a tinge of sorrow if she doesn't get to see The Nutcracker at Christmas.

Random.  But that's the best part!  And when I think of NYC and dance, I think of the jumbled craziness of performance I've seen - the weird, the elegant, the classical, the experimental, the insane, the ugly, the hilarious, the depressing, the way-too-long, and the awkward.  Talk about a never-ending game of 'Categories'....

All may have been "good" in my eyes, or only some, or none at all, and OF COURSE my opinions on that would differ from yours.  That's irrelevant.
What's relevant is that these performances are being choreographed and presented - that they exist, each shoving its way into our universe.  My job, then, as I go on to explain to Mr. Twenty Questions is to translate these crazy-different performance experiences into words, into another medium, that hopefully reaches more people and gives them a sliver of whatever that experience was - good or bad to me or them.

To try:  the next time you see a movie, performance, play, dance, commercial - describe it to someone without characterizing it as "good" or "bad" in any way.  Tricky Business.