hello. I would like to know if you are used to read dance magazines and what are your preferred (and why). Do you read also stranger magazines or only in your language?
What are the subjects you prefer? Reviews, features, news or what else?
Thank you a lot for answering.

<small>[ 29 June 2003, 05:37 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Hi silvia and many thanks for this interesting question. If it's OK with you I'm going to move it to "Dance Miscellany" as that's where we usually publicise magazines etc.

I only see paper copies of the UK magazines, so I’ll focus on them. First I have to declare an interest as I write regularly for “Dance Europe”. However, it is also my favourite. Just today in fact I was looking through the latest issue with a friend. We agreed that the layout and images are excellent and make it very attractive. Although the Editor, Emma Manning, is from the ballet world, she admires modern and other dance forms and the magazine reflects her eclectic taste. Most of the writers are ex-dancers (I’m one of the exceptions) and this means that dance artists are rarely skewered in the way that can happen in the UK national newspapers. It’s primarily about dance today, as opposed to a historical perspective.

The quarterly, “Dance Now”, features longer pieces and fewer images. The focus is mainly, but not entirely, ballet and the writers are often authorities in their respective fields. Historic themes are included and there is a lot of good material.

“Dance Theatre Journal” is usually about two-thirds modern/contemporary dance and has a style somewhere between popular and journal. It is highly respected in the dance profession and explores areas and themes that the others don’t.

“Dancing Times”
is the largest selling UK magazine. It includes material about schools and technique, so it doesn’t fit so well with my interests. The Editor, Mary Clarke, is one of the most respected UK dance writers.

Similarly, “Dance Expression” with its wide coverage of both performance and social dance goes beyond my personal interests, so I tend not to see it regularly.

Like silvia I'm keen to hear about the magazines that others enjoy from the UK, US and elsewhere. If you can, please provide a link to the websites of any magazines you mention.

<small>[ 29 June 2003, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

I discovered Dance Perspectives when I was in college (1968-1972), but I don't know whether it's still around. The only references my online search came up with were in the context of bibliographies or references. However, I came across a posting by Renee Renouf in Ballet.co in which she mentioned seeing an article recently, possibly in Dance Perspectives, that seems to indicate it's still being published. Or maybe she only meant she recently came across an article in an old issue.

It was published in the U.S., was heavy on text and light on pictures, and had articles about all kinds of dance. Here are the titles of some articles that came up in my search:

"Three Essays in Dance Aesthetics"

"Trance Dance"

"Rural Felicity: Social Dance in 18th-century Connecticut"

"Beyond Technique" (Erik Bruhn)

The first issue I read had a very good interview with Alwin Nikolais. I hadn't seen his company at that point, but I knew just from reading the interview that it was just the type of dancing I wanted to do. When I saw the company a few years later, I found I was right.

I've never read any foreign-language magazines because I'm not fluent enough in any other language to make it worthwhile. Translating the occasional post in Danser en Francais is about as much as I can handle.

<small>[ 29 June 2003, 02:48 PM: Message edited by: djb ]</small>

Thank you for answering. As Italian I am compelled to read in foreign languages magazines iF I want to be in touch with all the most important events in dance world. Italy is something in the Empire's endlands although we have important dancers, choreographers and companies and the ballet festivals are interesting and very a la page. Anyway a part from some occasions we are used to look too much in our Country but I think instead the contrary.
Italian magazines are balletto Oggi which has also a french and and english edition (does someone know it? what do you think about?)
Danza & Danza ( monthly newspaper with reviews, infos interviews features and so on)
and Tuttodanza (appearing in three months).
About the international magazines, I like very much Dance Now, for its extended essays about historical subjects and Dance Europe I have started to read for some months and, being an english magazine, has the merit to look outside the country with a curious look (Dancing Times not always has, to my opinion).
French magazines seem poor in journalist works (and also in reviews).I loved too Ballettanz but unfortunately I cannot read german and I had to give up subscription when the editors chose to issue the magazine only in that language. (Therefore I wonder why the go on saying it is the most important magazine in Europe...)

Here is the link to a recent discussion about the new format of the US-based "Dance Magazine":

http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000550

Like silvia, I'm keen to have comments from others about their favourite magazines.

indeed I am a lilltel worried about the new trend of Dance Magazine. I wonder where will it go...Surely the problem is echonomical, but the magazine is loosing its nature...
I remind the shock the first time I found a copy (I was ten years old) in my ballet school (it was a truly rare case to find international magazines in Italian ballet schools in 70es). On the pink cover Natalia Makarova. It was a coup de foudre. I understood that maybe I would not become a dancer but surely I would be able to stay close to them tahnks to magazines and critics