Deborah Jowitt began working with Tisch Dance in 1975 under the direction of Stuart Hodes. She has taught Dance History, Senior Seminar, Projects Class and Choreography. A daughter of a Hollywood screenwriter, Jowitt moved from California in 1953 to dance in the company of Harriett Ann Gray. In the 1960's she contributed to the WBAI radio talk show "The Critical People" discussing current events in dance, books and music which inevitably led her to a writing position at the Village Voice in 1967. She was also a founding member of Dance Theater Workshop.
Last year, Jowitt received a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie). This is what the Bessie committee had to say: "For her decades of eloquence as the chronicler of our community; for her unflagging commitment to justice and revelation in her dance writing; and for the unquenchable vitality of her dancer's soul, a special 2008 New York Dance and Performance Award goes to Deborah Jowitt."
Sadlly, in 2008, The Village Voice dissolved her position after more than forty years. She contibutes as a freelance writer on the print and web editions of the Voice although her regular weekly presence is deeply missed by the entire dance community. She says that many staff writer positions are being cut all around the country which will greatly affect the way dance is witnessed and remembered. When asked what she enjoys about teaching she says, "I love teaching because it exposes me to ideas and cultures. It challenges me to present material so that it is entertaining and interesting. I love the act of writing - of writing about ideas that are in dance...space, the design of the body in that space and patterning."
We are truly honored to have Deborah in our faculty.
Here's Deborah Jowitt, in her own words...
I’ve been very busy with activities in addition to my teaching at NYU since the beginning of the 2008 fall semester. Here are most of them.
Although my full-time position as staff writer at the Village Voice was abolished in March of 2008, I have continued to contribute to the paper on a freelance basis. During the fall of 2008, I also wrote 14 essays for Playbill, relating to the 14 programs in New York City Ballet’s winter season. My article on Diaghilev’s Les Ballets Russes appeared in Dance Magazine’s January 2009 issue, and I reviewed The New Music Theater: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body (by Eric Salzman and Thomas Desi) for the February/March issue of Bookforum.
In September, I presented a paper on a panel, "Clytemnestra and the Dance Dramas of Martha Graham: Revising the Classics," sponsored by NYU’s Gallatin School. In October, I moderated a symposium discussion, "Movement: A Universal Language," among Bill T. Jones, Margie Gillis, Irene Dowd and Beth Konopka. Later that month, I lectured on dance criticism and gave a workshop and presentation on dance analysis in Monterrey, Mexico, during the Fifth Annual International Dance Criticism Seminar (part of Festival de Danza Contemporanea Extremadura). Also in October, I conducted a public interview with Christopher Wheeldon for the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center’s "Breaking Ground" series (and will talk with David Dorfman for the same series on April 20).
In December, I was invited to present one of Dance Magazine’s annual awards to Lawrence Rhodes, the chairman of Juilliard’s Dance Department and once Chairman of the Dance Department at NYU-Tisch.
I appeared as a "talking head" on the two-hour PBS special on Jerome Robbins for its "American Masters" series (it aired first on February 18.
In March, I performed my talking-dancing solo, Body (in) Print, and spoke about the process of criticism at the New World School of the Arts in Miami.
In late May, I will present a paper, "Telling Tales: The Reinvention of Narrative in Postmodern Dance" at a conference on narrative sponsored by the University of Patras, Greece.
On May 5, a most humbling and gratifying event! La MaMa is honoring Harvey Lichtenstein and me at its benefit for LaMaMa Moves! Dance Festival.
