In the New York Times review “In a New Work, Camille A. Brown Plays with Empowerment”, Gia Kourlas writes on the choreographer Camille A. Brown’s latest dance “Black Girl: Linguistic Play”. Kourlas begins with a thesis stating that Brown’s dance is not “the least bit diminutive.” She goes on to give an overview of the theme of the work which is the black female identity, and the medium through which it was expressed, the playground. Following this brief introduction, Kourlas briefly mentions the highlights of each section of the performance as well as the shifts of tone throughout.

In Wendy Oliver’s book Writing About Dance, she states that the model for dance criticism starts with description then goes to analysis, then interpretation, and finally evaluation. Additionally, the thesis sentence may be something that “offers an interesting insight and refers to the concert as a whole.” Kourlas beings her critique with a thesis that fulfills this in part by offering a general insight of the dance as not diminutive. Then, following Oliver’s format, the review has a brief description of the dance as a whole. However, considering the following critiques of each individual part, it seems like there should have been a longer description of the overall performance. All that is mentioned is the use of “a multilevel stage of platforms and mirrors” as well as the use of “games of childhood.” For a description, an overview of the performance would have been good.

The following paragraphs introduced different sections of the performance, along with brief analysis of each. However, there was not much of interpretation by Kourlas beside that of the tone shifts. In addition, the evaluation is practically non-existent in this review aside from that which is stated in the thesis. Kourlas does not explicitly follow through on her initial statement, although she does somewhat back it up through her descriptions of the parts of the performance. Throughout the review, third person voice is used which creates the atmosphere of a more professional critique and also slightly removes the critic from the action. Overall, Kourlas’ review on Brown’s dance is an effective and concise one.