Yet Another Critical Loss

I am saddened to note that dance and music critic Paul Horsley of the Kansas City Star has been downsized in a round of corporate reorganizing by the McClatchy chain. A link to the story from Musical America is here. This is on the heels of a number of demoralizing layoffs, cuts, buyouts and retirements of prominent dance writers, among them Lewis Segal of the Los Angeles Times, Deborah Jowitt of the Village Voice, Laura Bleiberg of the Orange County Register and Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times.

Paul and I attended the American Dance Festival Critics Conference, now called the NEA Arts Journalism program, a few years ago. While the program continues, I wonder about the wisdom of training new arts journalists in this increasingly hostile climate. Although Paul was primarily known for his astute classical music coverage in a city filled with music and a soon-to-open concert hall and performing arts center, he wrote frequently and elegantly on dance, particularly the Kansas City Ballet.