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The San Francisco Bay Area is an exciting place for dance right now. I’ve written about Bay Area dance for more than 20 years and I am closely following developments at San Francisco Ballet under new artistic director Tamara Rojo, as well as reviewing Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, ODC/Dance, Robert Moses’ Kin, and other companies. I write a great deal for the San Francisco Chronicle, but my work also appears in Fjord Review (all hail editor and founder Penelope Ford) and other publications. I’ll collect my latest reviews in a weekly newsletter, along with commentary, reflections, and news that didn’t fit in the reviews. I also write books (so far, a novel and a memoir) and I teach writing, so from time to time I’ll include updates on my literary work and upcoming classes at Stanford Continuing Studies and elsewhere.

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As a dance critic, I don’t aim to have the right verdict on a new work or a dancer’s performance. My job is to honestly share my subjective experience in a piece of informed writing that offers context and invites the reader to think about and share her own reactions. I want to hear what you felt and thought. The comments feature of Footnotes gives us a place for conversation away from all the garbage on Twitter.

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Subscribe to Rachel Howard's Footnotes

I write about dance from San Francisco for the SF Chronicle, Fjord Review, and other publications, and collect my writings in this newsletter. I also am a novelist, memoirist, and writing teacher, and include updates on my literary work and classes here.

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Novelist, memoirist, dance critic. Lover of particulars, pluralism, paradox. 2024 NEA literature fellow. I write about dance for Fjord Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. Books: The Risk of Us, The Lost Night. At work on another memoir.