American dance critic, author, and choreographer
Deborah Jowitt is an American dance critic, author, and choreographer. 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.
Beginning in 1967, she wrote a weekly dance column for The Village Voice, 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[1] and The Dance in Mind: Profiles and Reviews 1976–1983.[2]
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.[3] She was a faculty member at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.[4]
Her biography of the dancer Martha Graham, Errand into the Maze, was published in 2024.[5] Jowitt took the title from Graham's 1947 ballet of the same name.
