This is a review from April 2011 of Stephen Petronio’s piece Underland, which was performed at the Joyce Theater.
http://www.villagevoice.com/2011-04-13/dance/stephen-petronio-venures-into-a-dark-world-chunky-move-lights-one-u/
Passport to the Arts
Donna Uchizono's Seminar 1 Class
In “Writing About Dance”, Wendy Oliver breaks down the art of dance critiques. She sets several ground roles, which, according to her, are essential to every good critique – whether it be by a student or a professional. Oliver argues that one must always start a critique with descriptions of the dance, its setting, music and costumes. At this point, no opinions or inferences should be shared with the readers. After the reader gets an adequate mental image of the performance, the critic can go on to analyze the themes or the nuances of the dance and add what they think the choreographer was trying to achieve. Only at this point can a dance reviewer share their opinion about the performance and decide whether or not they wish to recommend the dance in question to potential audience members.
Deborah Jowitt’s Village Voice review of Stephen Petronio’s “Underland” follows Wendy Oliver’s format quite well. Jowitt starts off her review with vivid, colorful descriptions: “The burning buildings and circling helicopters in Mike Daly’s video montage, as well as the drastic lighting (visual design by Ken Tabachnik), seemed part ancient fable and part shockingly contemporary vision.” A gory mood is immediately set. Jowitt also describes the dancer’s movements (which Oliver argued to be absolutely necessary): “They interweave and twine, nuzzling one another, collapsing and being caught, reaching out and being embraced.”
After extensively describing the dance, the dance critic goes on to analyze the choreography in question. She acknowledges the subtle-yet-significant role the lighting was playing, as well as the appropriate juxtaposition between the male dancers: one was tall and strongly built while the other was short and slim. She adds several more action-packed descriptions, and finally – at the very last sentence of her review – revels her opinion of the dance: “’I Like This’ is too laconic as a summing-up of I Like This. I f****** love it.” Clearly, Jowitt found the performance to be extremely appealing.