Dance Criticism and Disciplinary Formation

Abstract

Chapter 3 reveals the enormous influence that dance criticism has had on the disciplinary formation of dance in university settings. Margaret H’Doubler established the first dance degree in the United States in 1926, and John Martin started publishing in the New York Times in 1927. While dance educators in higher education have fought complex battles to gain the respect of scholars in other departments, dance critics have also played vital roles in legitimating dance as an art form. This chapter examines the concurrent institutionalization of criticism and dance in higher education and how their constitutive development left indelible traces: influencing the artists and techniques in dance departments and shaping the design of history courses to validate these artists and techniques. This chapter ends with prompts for history courses today that can encourage dialogue about dance criticism and disciplinary formation, analyzing the ways that courses and curricula have become tethered to systemic exclusions that perpetuate injustices of recognition.