For fifteen years, thINKingDANCE has been a place where dance is not only reviewed, but questioned, contextualized, argued with, and deeply loved. Since 2011, writers at thINKingDANCE have tracked the shifting ecosystems of dance in Philadelphia and far beyond—following artists across decades, interrogating aesthetics and labor, celebrating risk, and making space for dissent, curiosity, and joy. What began as a focused platform for criticism has grown into an expansive archive of essays, interviews, reviews, roundtables, and experiments that reflect how dance itself keeps changing. Along the way, shifts in leadership and stewardship have brought new priorities and perspectives, expanding who is centered and who is heard.
This timeline traces fifteen years of sustained attention to the art form and the people who make it. Each year holds its own concerns and breakthroughs: emerging voices, recurring questions, moments of urgency, and works that linger long after the curtain falls. Over time, conversations around equity, decolonization, and the politics of criticism itself have increasingly shaped not just what is written, but how writing happens. Below, you’ll find space to revisit each year—through articles, quotes, and memories that together tell the story of thINKingDANCE in motion.
2011
“Childs’ work has been characterized as post-modern and minimalist; my experience of it has been more in the realm of endurance art.”
On working with Lucinda Childs, a choreographer whose work endures
- November 10, 2011, A Think Piece by Megan Bridge
“The mood swung from pop to performance art, an odd, dizzying nod to the rest of the evening, which was more dance performance than dance party.”
“Last Monday” Highlights Diverse and Playful Local Work
- November 4, 2011, A Review by Amelia Longo
2012
“Jasperse has opened a can, and the rest of us are left to chew on the worms. Some may call this the artist’s role in society, but I question who ends up being forced to do the chewing, and who is left hungry altogether.”
- August 2, 2012, A Review by Kilian Kröll
“What bodies make it to the professional stage? What forms of dance are seen as legitimate study or art? I believe it is the responsibility of all of us, not just the black ballerina, to wrestle with these questions.”
Brown’s “Audacious Hope”: A Book Review
- October 10, 2012, A Book Review by Ellen Gerdes
2013
“My internal critic pipes up. Oh Annie, always making things awkward. Really, tracing the outline of his foot? That’s the best you’ve got? Hay’s voice catches us again: “Here and gone, here and gone, here and gone.””
- March 1, 2013, A Think Piece by Annie Wilson
“The dancers’ unison arm movements were fluid, gentle, and expressive with hand gestures that suggested the shiver of rain, mountain peaks, ocean vistas, bright skies, net-fishing, greeting those nearby and those far off.”
- March 25, 2013, A Review by Lynn Matluck Brooks
2014
“This is not millennial dramaturgy with its emphasis on shaping how the viewer “makes meaning.”… If material is as charged and topical as in Bound with its anti-war implications, is there any duty at all to create a comprehensible whole? Are we as open now to any material at all being used in any way at all? And how does that square with Paxton’s stating that reading the work as being “about something” misses the point?”
Thoughts about Steve Paxton on viewing four of his dances at Dia:Beacon
- November 20, 2014, A Review by Lisa Kraus
“Greg Holt: Her response is incredibly holistic—you can’t just change the orientation; you can’t shift it without it becoming a completely different thing. There is no expedient tool in construction; all new material has to be made rather than just “fitting it in” and slamming things next to one another. The whole situation—the spacing, the people, the timing—is all considered.”
January 17, 2014, An Interview by Anna Drozdowski
2015
“Without discounting the works of the scholars listed above, I found this list problematic; culturally specific perspectives sometimes eradicate other voices, causing one’s idea to be framed, viewed and taught through a reduced lens.”
Tharp and Race: Four Questions
- November 15, 2015, A Review by Gregory King
“Post-it #3: Free improvisation is
“Knowing when to hold them,
knowing when to fold them.””
- November 3, 2015, A Review by Lynn Matluck Brooks and Zornitsa Stoyanova
2016
“LMB: Are there changes or developments you long to see? If you could shoot the arrow, where would it land?
BDG: I would burst the arrow into the tiniest, indecipherable shards possible at racism—the most glaring, tragic, intransigent issue in every sector of the American landscape.”
Arrows at Racism in Dance and Beyond: Brenda Dixon Gottschild
- June 25, 2016, An Interview by Lynn Matluck Brooks
“Artists across many fields turn to teaching, dispensing knowledge from their own education and lively careers to up-and-coming creators with eager minds. Teaching can be humbling work; it can also be rewarding. And teachers can inspire.”
- March 2, 2016, A Review by Whitney Weinstein
2017
“We will need many strategies for keeping our performative forms and corporeal practices alive, including clinging to our disappearing icebergs, fighting for their survival in a world in the midst of rupture.”
Bebe Miller and Susan Rethorst: Archiving the Disappearing Dance
- February 4, 2017, A Review by Meredith Bove
“tD writer and mixologist Scott Rodrigue kept spirits high as he served up gimlets, corpse killers, bee’s knees, and other classic cocktails. And DJ Garrett Schmidt kept us grooving into the wee hours of the night.”
choreoBASH is a Smashing Success!
- November 21, 2017, A News Article by Carolyn Merritt
2018
“Its name alone literally sends a post-industrial message; its namesake is the dirt, grime, and gumption of the former “Workshop of the World.””
- October 31, 2018, A Review by Mira Treatman
“Even initially shy participants were drawn into the fun as they admired and cheered one another’s moves, ending with a raucous group circle dance.”
Teaming Up: tD and Mighty Writers
- April 28, 2018, A News Article by Karl Surkan, Carolyn Merritt, Lynn Matluck Brooks
2019
“Watching them, I notice how often I think about violence towards women. One by one the dancers leave the space and we are left with the initial image: the body of a dead woman, face down on the ground.”
Horrific and Whimsical Dream States
- October 28, 2019, A Review by Kristen Shahverdian
“She puts one stone in her mouth, and I can feel the weight of it settle in my own mouth. She drops the stone, washes her hands in dirt, then in water, and exits.”
Fresh Juice Fest: Attending to Time and Space
- July 9, 2019, A Review by Kalila Kingsford Smith
2020
“The window is no longer a window.
The clock on the wall has stopped ticking.”
Confinement Dance Photo Essay Series: Black & White
- May 28, 2020, A Think Piece by Christina Catanese
“While dance is no stranger to the technological age, many of us find in-person community gatherings fundamental to the creation and sharing of our work.”
COVID-19 and Dance: Resources to Keep Us Moving
- March 23, 2020, A News and Resources Article by Kat J. Sullivan
“While I conducted these interviews separately, in the spirit of Overlie’s non-hierarchical practices, I’ve woven together the perspectives here.”
Mary Overlie: Near, Far, and Infinite Presence
- June 9, 2020, An Interview by Miryam Coppersmith
2021
“Decolonization is a tedious act of undoing- an ongoing protest. But the moment we ignore the impact of colonization within dance—within all that we do—we fall into hopes of gold mines where there is none.”
Unpacking the buzzword “Decolonization”
- May 24, 2021, A Think Piece by Anito Gavino
“The project was born out of a need to celebrate dance traditions, aesthetics, and forms outside the western canon and to amplify the way we engage with dance scholarship.”
Announcing Artists for the Decolonizing Dance Writing: International Exchange Project
- June 27, 2021, A Project Announced by Gregory King
“Mama Kariamu Welsh, age 72, transitioned to ancestor in the early morning of Tuesday, October 12th, 2021 at her home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.”
Mama Kariamu Welsh: Memorial Tribute
- November 12, 2021, A Memorial by L. Graciella Maiolatesi
2022
“Norris has an unabashed truthfulness, made more compelling by a comedic precision that draws back the theatrical veil to comment on the moment. I laugh as she takes us to the Bronx…”
The Multilayered Selfhood of Shavon Norris
- September 29, 2022, A Review by Shayla-Vie Jenkins
“Bugg’s feet tap and stomp the surface of the water with precision, creating a sloshing, swishing rhythmic undercurrent.”
- September 8, 2022, A Review by Miryam Coppersmith
“Having a focus during this improvisation helped me to “let go” of my typical chaotic morning with two small children, an experience that usually permeates a large part of how I move throughout my day.”
Triggering Empathy Through The Body
- January 8, 2022, A Review by Lauren Putty White
2023
“Surkan’s breadth of interests and curiosities helped expand tD’s scope of critical coverage of the arts in Philadelphia, where he resided.”
Remembering tD Writer Karl Surkan
- February 19, 2023, A Memorial by Jonathan Stein
“The art itself is everywhere—on the walls, hanging from ceilings, stationed in corners, stairway landings, on shelves and in nooks in every room. The tour moves through a series of rooms one might visit in an urgent care setting: Reception, Triage, Examination, Recovery, Apothecary, and Aftercare.”
Art as Remedy in “Urgent Care: A Social Care Experience”
- October 3, 2017, A Review from the Archive by Karl Surkan
“And by the way, I don’t think there is any sous-sus in soutenu.”
Access and Artistry: Part 1 – a conversation with Dancer and Educator Krishna Washburn
May 17, 2023, An Interview by Emilee Lord
2024
“Our art does not exist inside a vacuum, and it cannot change the systemic powers of the world solely on its own. Mire reminded us that “artists need to be on the side of revolution… anything less is a disservice to our craft.””
Modern Dance, Zionism, and a Free Palestine
- January 15, 2024, A Review and Think Piece by Lu Donovan
“I ask my fellow dance workers, how do we (or rather, can we) continue to thrive in a field that, as Dance/NYC reported and ABT dancers attested to, is not financially sustainable at even the most basic level?”
The ABT Strike and the Fight for Fair Wages for Dancers
- February 21, 2024, A News Article by Rachel Repinz
“Undulating his spine, rhythmically opening and closing his arms, Neil catches the downbeat in a pelvic/spinal concordance with every phrase. The drums compel him to remove his heart and place it on the scale against the feather of Maat.”
Sankofa in the round in ‘The Duat’
- June 24, 2024, A Review by nikolai mckenzie ben rema
“The editorial board at thINKing Dance stands in solidarity with these students, as well as the ones who will face new decisions about their artistic and academic careers.”
- August 29, 2024, A News Article and Think Piece by Megan Mizanty
2025
“Quiet and outraged, sometimes funny, always pleading and loving. It’s all so tender and full of longing.”
- April 16, 2025, A Review by Emilee Lord
“This fellowship recognizes exceptional work in the field of dance writing for two U.S.-based undergraduates studying in the performing arts, journalism, writing, or a related field.”
thINKingDANCE Launches Emerging Writers Fellowship
- October 17, 2025, A News Article by thINKingDANCE leadership
“This evening is about connection though, her connections – to her students, friends, returning collaborators, and possibly most importantly herself.”
Realness For the Patrons – Rennie Harris Beautiful Humans Lies: Chapter 4
- September 18, 2025, A Write Back Atcha! by Noel Price-Bracey and Audience
“The chorus never breaks its sorrowful melody. Officer after officer after officer arrives. They ask me to move to the side. “Am I in the way?””
- November 10, 2025, A Review and Think Piece by Xander Cobb
“‘You’re here because the Kennedy Center Office of the President has lost faith in the direction of dance programming, and you are being fired immediately.’”
- December 4, 2025, An Interview and Think Piece by Ashayla Byrd
“Masked up and walking through the doors of New York Live Arts, I am immediately greeted by a sensory table stocked with props, fabric swatches, and squares of marley flooring.”
The Future is Disabled (and wearing silver fringe)
- October 17, 2025, A Review by Rachel DeForrest Repinz
