Read up on Edwin Denby’s contributions to dance criticism here, then test your students’ knowledge with this quiz!
1. Denby enrolled at ________ University at age ________.
2. Denby studied modern dance at the ________-________School in Vienna.
3. What was the first Balanchine ballet Denby saw
4. What was Denby’s cat’s name?
5. Editor ________ ________ saw something in Denby’s writing when he submitted an essay to ________ ________ magazine.
6. Name three of the publications Denby wrote for during his career.
7. Which of the following is NOT one of Denby’s books?
a. Going to the Dance
b. Dancers, Buildings and People in the Streets
c. Looking at the Dance
8. True or false: Denby continued to review dance through the 1970s.
9. Former New Yorker critic ________ ________ joked that she has “spent years combing Denbyisms out of her prose.”
10. After reading Denby’s review of ________ ________, Balanchine told Richard Buckle, “If you must write, try writing like that.”
Answers: 1. Harvard, 16; 2. Hellerau-Laxenburg; 3. Prodigal Son; 4. Friendly; 5. Minna Lederman, Modern Music; 6. Any three of the following: Modern Music, New York Herald Tribune, Dance Magazine, The Nation (also Dance News, Saturday Review, Hudson Review and Art News, not listed in the story); 7. a; 8. false; 9. Arlene Croce; 10. Concerto Barocco
