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The critic Arlene Croce has died

I'm very sorry to hear that the great dance critic Arlene Croce (1934-2024) has died. When I began to get closer to dance, in my thirties, her books of criticism became a kind of education in everything criticism could be: trenchant prose; intelligent playground of interconnected ideas; a way of transmitting deep and varied knowledge; a distillation of culture; a place to develop confident, even lapidary opinions; polemic; historical record. If you are unsure of your own writing, or are afraid to say what you really mean, a visit to Arlene Croce is often the best medicine. That is true even now that she is gone. In New York, her influence on the field of dance has been immense, perhaps even excessive. But how could it be any other way? Just read one of her pieces. Her brain, her taste, her writing style, her ability to find just the right phrase to describe a performer or a performance are exhilarating.