Draft:Margaret Lloyd (dance critic)
Margaret Lloyd | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margaret Thayer 1887 South Braintree, Massachusetts |
| Died | (aged 72) Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Dance critic |
| Notable works | The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance |
Margaret Lloyd (née Thayer; 1887–March 1, 1960) was an American dance critic in the field of modern dance.[1] Lloyd was one of the first full-time modern dance critics for an American newspaper, covering dance for The Christian Science Monitor from 1936 until her death in 1960. Her 1949 review of the field of modern dance, The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance, is considered by WHOM? to be WHAT SORT OF IMPORTANT THING?. Lloyd lived in Massachusetts her whole life, and covered dance performances across the Northeastern United States.
Biography
[edit]Margaret Thayer was born in South Braintree, Massachusetts in 1887. According to her longtime friend Pauline Chellis, she was a descendant of Sylvanus Thayer, and took the name "Margaret Lloyd" as a pen name after a stepfather.[3] Lloyd was a follower of the Christian Science movement, and began writing film reviews and feature stories for The Christian Science Monitor by 1931. Her work expanded to dance in 1936, focusing especially on the rapidly-expanding field of modern dance.[1]
Lloyd wrote a review of the field of early 20th-century modern dance in 1949, The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, it was noted for its pioneering approach.[1] Fellow dance critic John Martin, one of Lloyd's few contemporaries, praised the book for its "scope and authority" while also highlighting a number of small factual errors.[7]
Lloyd continued her work in the field of dance criticism after publishing The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance, writing for the Christian Science Monitor until her death in 1960. Lloyd's final review was of
Context in the field of dance criticism
[edit]Lloyd was one of the first full-time dance critics writing for major American newspapers, and one of the first to focus on modern dance. Historian Lynne Conner contextualizes dance criticism in major American newspapers with music criticism, which she argues became commonplace in large-city papers in the 1860s, and became more conservative in the late 19th century.[8]: 20–23 Conner highlights a moment of change in reporting on modern dance in 1903, when a report of Isadora Duncan's German performances was transmitted by submarine cable and republished in The New York Times.[8]: 30
Duncan's immense popularity with the American media was still insufficient to create comprehensive coverage of modern dance in American newspapers, with sensationalism and intense skepticism common in reviews of modern dance from the 1910s and 20s.[8]: 37 Conner places Henry Taylor Parker and Carl Van Vechten as the first notable critics of American-produced dance, with their coverage from the 1910s focusing on the developing field of American ballet.[8]: 71 Following the commercial and popular success of the Denishawn company's performances at Carnegie Hall in 1927, major New York newspapers finally began to appoint full-time critics of modern dance, including Mary Fitch Watkins at the New York Herald Tribune and John Martin at The New York Times.[9]: 106
Personal life
[edit]Lloyd married The Monitor's music and theater editor Leslie A. Sloper some time during her employment at The Monitor. They had three children, and Lloyd also had one child from a previous marriage.[1] Sloper died in 1949.[10]
Critical viewpoints
[edit]Lloyd was an opinionated person, cite her opinions.
She thought WHAT? about abstraction
She thought WHAT? about festivals.[5]
Choreographer Alwin Nikolais described Lloyd's critical analysis as less formulaic and more contemporary than that of her peers, highlighting his observation of a conversation between Lloyd and four other critics. Nikolais recalls that the four peers each detailed their rules for evaluating a performance, which he believed were outdated. Nikolais claims that Lloyd refuted them, recounting that "she turned to the other four and frankly said, 'I really don't know what you are talking about. I just go and look.'"[11]
Fellow dance critic Doris Hering argues that "In [an] era when writings about dancers tended to treat them as exotic creatures, Lloyd's pragmatic view of her subjects as social beings was a major contribution to the field.[1]
Lloyd condemned the presence left-wing politics in modern dance during the Great Depression, including the rhetoric of the National Dance Congress, an organization led primarily by prominent left-wing Jewish modern dancers such as Helen Tamiris and Anna Sokolow. Scholar Julia Foulkes highlights Lloyd's criticism of the organization's May 1936 meeting, where Lloyd argued that leftist politics would "only succeed in turning the remaining liberals into fascisti."[12] Susan Manning concurred on Lloyd's views on liberalism, arguing that Lloyd's chronology in The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance primarily attributed the success of modern dance to "American ideals of freedom and democracy," which Manning believes "echoed the emerging rhetoric of Cold War liberalism."[13]: 207
Lloyd detailed her opinions on dance criticism in her correspondence with Lewiston Evening Journal journalist Charlotte Michaud in the late 1930s. In one letter written in 1938, Lloyd argued that dance critics should be journalists and not dancers, to maintain a broader view of the field and insulate their coverage from the influence of jealousy.[14]
Legacy
[edit]Pearl Lang dedicated her concert-length Shira to Lloyd's memory, performed at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in the summer of 1960.[5]: 78
Lloyd's legacy is examined HOW?. The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance remains a useful reference work FOR WHOM? and WHY?. It was reprinted Contemporary scholars think WHAT? about her opinions.
Publications
[edit]- Lloyd, Margaret (1949). The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance (1st ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Hering, Doris (July 2002). "Lloyd, Margaret (1887-1960), dance critic". American National Biography Online. doi:10.1093/ANB/9780198606697.ARTICLE.1803708. ISSN 1470-6229. Wikidata Q103867934.
- ^ Sorell, Walter (1971). The dancer's image: points & counterpoints. Columbia University Press. pp. 154–156. ISBN 978-0-231-03249-0.
- ^ a b Chellis, Pauline (June 1961). "In Memoriam: Margaret Lloyd (1887-1960)". Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation. 32 (5): 71.
- ^ "Obituaries: Margaret Lloyd". The Ballet Annual. 15: 145. 1961. OCLC 22618276.
- ^ a b c Anderson, Jack (1987). The American Dance Festival. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-0683-2.
- ^ "Obituaries: Margaret Lloyd". Variety. 218 (2): 87. March 9, 1960.
- ^ Martin, John (March 20, 1949). "Modern Dance Chronicle; THE BORZOI BOOK OF MODERN DANCE. By Margaret Lloyd. Illustrated. 356 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $5". The New York Times. p. B7. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
- ^ a b c d Conner, Lynne (1997). Spreading the gospel of the modern dance : newspaper dance criticism in the United States, 1850-1934. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 978-0-8229-5617-4.
- ^ Mazo, Joseph H. (1977). Prime movers: the makers of modern dance in America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Book Co. ISBN 978-0-916622-27-5.
- ^ "Obituary: Leslie A. Sloper". Editor & Publisher. 82 (48): 60. November 19, 1949. Retrieved 2025-01-06.
- ^ Nikolais, Alwin (1968). "Dance in Education - Statement II". Impulse (Dance: A Projection for the Future): 69–74. ISSN 0536-5899. Retrieved 2025-01-07.
- ^ Foulkes, Julia L. (2000). "Angels "Rewolt!": Jewish Women in Modern Dance in the 1930s". American Jewish History. 88 (2): 233–252. ISSN 0164-0178. JSTOR 23886260.
- ^ Manning, Susan (2025). "Nation and World in Modern Dance (2019)". Dancing on the Fault Lines of History: Selected Essays. University of Michigan Press. pp. 203–220. doi:10.3998/mpub.11411932. ISBN 978-0-472-07437-2.
- ^ Lloyd, Margaret (November 20, 1938). "Letter from Margaret Lloyd to Charlotte Michaud". Charlotte Michaud Papers, Franco-American Collection, University of Southern Maine Libraries. Retrieved 2025-01-08.
External links
[edit]- Lloyd's correspondence with Charlotte Michaud, University of Southern Maine Libraries
- Lloyd's reviews of Martha Graham performances, Library of Congress
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