Barnes, Clive

▪ 2009

      British-born American theatre and dance critic

born May 13, 1927, London, Eng.

died Nov. 19, 2008, New York, N.Y.

championed critical dance coverage and made the stage medium accessible to a generation of theatregoers. Following graduation from the University of Oxford, where he worked as an editor for a university dance periodical, Barnes led the charge among young critics aiming to legitimize specialized dance criticism. He freelanced for a time before being hired (1961) as the first full-time dance critic for The Times (London). In 1965 he was hired by the New York Times, where he spent the next 13 years writing about theatre and dance and growing in stature to become one of the city's most influential critics. When in 1978 he was asked to confine his coverage to dance, he left for the New York Post. There he was allowed to continue dual critical duties. Barnes also continued throughout his career to freelance for other publications. Always independent in his tastes, he was an early supporter of such choreographers as George Balanchine and Martha Graham and of Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.

* * *