Michael Seaver

The Word Life of Dances: A critical (re)view of dance in Ireland reprints the collected dance reviews of Diana Theodores, dance critic with Ireland's Sunday Tribune from 1984 to 1992. Edited by Michael Seaver and Christie Seaver the book forefronts the collective cultural act of making and looking at dance, and reminds us of the historical vitality of saying what happened.

In its historical relevance criticism can, in the words of Arlene Croce, “say what happened, name things, find out what it all meant.” The writings from Ireland's first nationally published “post” in dance criticism invite a particularly rich process of contextualising this criticism in relation to cultural patterns and analysing the collective “cultural artefact” that these dances in review represented then and now.

In addition to linking the historical sections of material the editors provide a concluding essay drawing from the body of “evidence” within the collection, along with an index and chronological charting of major cultural and political developments in the making of a decade of dance history.

It is about a looking back in order to look forward, reflecting on the changing contexts of criticism and an historical record of a turbulent and seminal period in the history of dance in Ireland.

Kinetic Reflex
ISBN 978-0-9542581-0-8