I am a writer and critic on performance, books and film and currently write for, among others, the Sunday Times and the Guardian. I edit Dance Gazette, the magazine of the Royal Academy of Dance. I’m also a lifelong Londoner: it’s the perfect city for connecting to art forms that both look back and spring forward.
Writing on the arts began as a sideline, while I wasn’t finishing an unfinished PhD. Many of my jobs were remarkably poorly paid. Some weren’t quite me – editing the movie section for a glossy mag where the editor sighed that the Nazis had a great look was something of a low.
I have also written for marvellous editors on magazines that are wonderfully committed to their subject, including Literary Review, Dancing Times and Sight & Sound. And I graduated to grown-up papers: the Sunday Times, Financial Times, Observer and Guardian in the UK, plus occasional work for the Washington Post and Toronto Globe & Mail.
I also edit stuff too – lots of theatre programmes in the past, and currently Dance Gazette. Making discoveries, encountering new artists and works, discussing subjects with enthusiasts and drawing on their enthusiasm – it’s been a continuing, enlivening education.