{"id":938,"date":"2009-08-20T09:24:52","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T16:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/08\/apollinaire_scherr_responds\/"},"modified":"2009-08-20T09:24:52","modified_gmt":"2009-08-20T16:24:52","slug":"apollinaire_scherr_responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/08\/apollinaire_scherr_responds.html","title":{"rendered":"Apollinaire Scherr responds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dance critic Apollinaire Scherr<\/a> responds to my criticism (here<\/a>) of dance criticism:<\/p>\n

In defense of Macaulay and me, a couple of thoughts: I do think there’s
\na difference between Croce’s not going at all (though if it were the
\ntime and I had the time, I would defend that action, given her reasons)
\nand Macaulay not watching the bulk of these two dance competition
\nshows. <\/p>\n

Don’t TV critics, even, review a show after having watched only
\nthe pilot and a few shows in? I don’t think a critic is obliged to
\nwatch every show to weigh in on the gist of it. Of course there are
\ngoing to be exceptions to the general rule of terrible choreography
\nthat makes even good dancers dreadful, but that’s not his or my point.
\nAnd haven’t you walked into a gallery, given a good look at a few
\npaintings\/installations\/videos and then scanned the rest? I mean, do
\nyou study every single inch of canvass to give it the benefit of the
\ndoubt? <\/p>\n

I think Macaulay is very careful, in all of his reviews, to
\nreport exactly how much he has seen and not seen. Probably other
\ncritics wouldn’t even mention it if they hadn’t seen every single show.<\/p>\n

As for the whole high\/low distinction, I agree that dance critics–or
\nrather, ballet critics–can be snobs. On the other hand, we’ve reached
\na point in the culture where to condemn a popular and populist art is
\nsuspect from the get-go. I think it’s refreshing, not tiresome, that he
\nwould dare do it in the Times. <\/p>\n

Also, how often do art critics even
\nbother with this kind of commercial work: say, Thomas Kinkade? Let me
\nknow what you think when they do. Sure, Dave Hickey has done Rockwell,
\nbut that’s so far after the fact, it hardly counts. <\/p>\n

Finally, this video
\nabove: I agree he’s a fine dancer–particularly his hips and
\nfootwork–but the choreography and the way it works with its music
\ndoesn’t allow him to be musical. Every one of his phrases ends with the
\nsame sort of ta-da, and the feel of the music runs exactly counter to
\nthe spirit of the dancing. It’s a ludicrous piece, and that’s the
\nproblem with So You Think You Can Dance <\/i>–the show reduces even the
\nbest dancers to dreck. ~Apollinaire<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dance critic Apollinaire Scherr responds to my criticism (here) of dance criticism: In defense of Macaulay and me, a couple of thoughts: I do think there’s a difference between Croce’s not going at all (though if it were the time and I had the time, I would defend that action, given her reasons) and Macaulay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}