I have blog/website envy. The Dance Enthusiast is only 5 years old, but is already wise beyond its years. The site employs 8 dance critics. They see dance. They write about it. This is normal (but not easy to achieve). What is exciting and new is the fully-fledged 'audience reviews' section that publishes the writing of the everyday dance viewer with as much respect and confidence as they do their staff. The site is beautiful, their ideals are beautiful, and reading about people's varied perceptions about dance can be beautiful, initiating dynamic and complicated thoughts and debate.
Last night, the Dance Enthusiast celebrated their 5th birthday with a gathering of supporters, writers and some passerby who were just getting out of their class at DNA. The event was small, with maybe 50 people in attendance, but it felt like an important moment in the Dance Enthusiast's career. Christine Jowers, Founding Editor of the Dance Enthusiast, hosted the event. Writer and dance critic Eva Yaa Asantewaa, of InfiniteBody, was there. Dancers, and husbands of dancers, and friends of people who kind of knew dance but knew they loved the idea of dance, were there. Wonderfully, SARA du jour and was there with TJ Spooner for a quick performance (if you don't know SARA, you must go to this blog too! Blonde wigs are but an exclamation point of excitement for these unbridled and confident personalities, housed within flirtatious bodies).
I have posted most of my reviews on the Dance Enthusiast as an 'audience reviewer' since I moved to New York, and the excitement of reaching so many people is invigorating. I will continue to post my reviews there (and then link them back to this blog...in a good for the goose, good for the gander relationship that is at once generous and good for business).
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