Recommended: Through the Eyes of a Dancer: Selected Writings
December 1, 2014

By Wendy Perron

Wesleyan University Press; 362 pages; $29.95

Wendy Perron’s eclectic collection of dance writing—essays, articles, reviews, blog posts and interviews—covers the last 50 years of dance in New York City from an insider’s point of view. Her own dance background—as a witness to Judson Dance Theater, dancer for Trisha Brown, choreographer, critic and Dance Magazine’s editor in chief for nearly a decade—gives Through the Eyes of a Dancer an incisive authority.

Arranged in the order they were published, her pieces range from the historical (a profile of anthropologist and choreographer Katherine Dunham) to the provocative (a blog post on whether American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane was given enough credit as Natalie Portman’s body double in Black Swan). Perron writes with kinesthetic appeal, making you feel like you’re seeing performances right there with her.

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