Deborah Jowitt (born 1934) is an American dance critic, author, and

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

. Her career in dance began as a performer and choreographer. Jowitt has received several awards for her work, including a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for her work in dance criticism.

Early life

Jowitt was born in 1934, hailing from California.

Career

Beginning in 1967, she wrote a weekly dance column for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'', providing frequent reviews of dance performances in New York City. From some time in the 1970s until 1994, the ''Voice'' had a page and a half for dance coverage: Jowitt contributed 1600 words or a full page of this, week after week, plus occasional features. Collections of her reviews from the ''Voice'' and numerous other publications have appeared as books – ''Dance Beat: Selected Views and Reviews, 1967–1976'' and ''The Dance in Mind: Profiles and Reviews 1976–1983''. In 2007, Jowitt's column in the ''Village Voice'' was increased in length to 3/4 page, having been earlier reduced to a half-page; in 2008, her position as dance critic was converted from full-time to freelance. However, Jowitt continued to write 3/4 page reviews for the ''Voice'' until 2011. She was a faculty member at the

New York University Tisch School of the Arts The New York University Tisch School of the Arts (commonly referred to as Tisch) is the performing, cinematic, and media arts school of New York University. Founded on August 17, 1965, as the School of the Arts at New York University, Tisch ...

. Her biography of the dancer

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...

, ''Errand into the Maze'', was published in 2024. Jowitt took the title from Graham's 1947 ballet of the same name.

Awards

* 1985, a special citation from the SDHS for ''The Dance in Mind'' * 1988, the de la Torre Bueno Prize for the best book in the field of dance studies for ''Time and the Dancing Image'' * 2001, the "Outstanding Contribution to Dance Research" award from

Congress on Research in Dance Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and worldwide that was founded in 1964 and then merged in 2017 with the Society of Dance History Scholars to form the Dance Studies Asso ...

(CORD) * 2005, a special citation from the

Society of Dance History Scholars The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) was a professional organization for dance historians in the United States and internationally. Founded in 1978, it became a non-profit in 1983. SDHS became a member of the American Council of Learned Soc ...

(SDHS) for her 2004 book, ''

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

: His Life, His Theater, His Dance''

References

External links

Sarma Critics: Deborah Jowitt

Arts Catter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jowitt, Deborah Living people 21st-century American historians 21st-century American women writers American choreographers American dance critics American women biographers Biographers of artists American women critics American women historians American women journalists Bessie Award winners Dance historians Tisch School of the Arts faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)