British-born dance critic Clive Barnes has died. He was 81.
Barnes revolutionized dance criticism in Britain, singing the praises of George Balanchine and other foreign innovators to his often stuffy and Anglo-centric readers in the years immediately after World War II. Later in his career Barnes worked at the New York Times, writing clear-eyed and cogent dance reviews (and, for a time, theater critiques) during his 1965-77 tenure there. He worked for the New York Post until a few weeks before his death.
Here’s the New York Times obit.
