Former Village Voice Editor to Talk about Dance at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama’s department of theatre and dance presents the lecture “The Crisis in Criticism: The Internet, the Economy and the Death of Dance Writing” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, in Morgan Auditorium.

Elizabeth Zimmer, dance editor for the Village Voice from 1992 to 2006, will present this talk. The event is free and open to the public.

Zimmer will be at UA from Tuesday, Feb. 2, to Thursday, Feb. 4, as a guest lecturer in the dance program. She will visit dance, theatre and journalism classes, sharing her experiences as a writer and dance critic. Her lecture will discuss such questions as “What created the dance boom of the 1960s and ’70s?” and “What happened to turn it around, leaving both dance companies and the critics who care about them starved for resources?” This talk is an interesting mix of art and the economic and technological forces that influence it.

Zimmer, a native New Yorker, writes about dance, theatre and books for The Australian and the free New York daily Metro and contributes to many other publications. She has taught writing and dance history at colleges and universities across North America.  She edited two widely respected books, “Body Against Body: The Dance and other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane” (Station Hill Press, 1989) and “Envisioning Dance for Film and Video” (Routledge, 2002).

For details, phone Sarah M. Barry, assistant professor of theatre and dance, at 205/348-8699.

The department of theatre and dance is a part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.