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Article snippet: It has become routine to talk about mindfulness, but as a dance writer, I’ve been putting it into practice for years. That’s what you do when you watch a dance. You focus your total awareness on the present. Dance disappears before you know it; writing about it requires a level of attention that, at times, seems unattainable. The act of emptying the mind to quickly absorb what’s in front of you — bodies moving in space and time, the visual and emotional effect of lighting, the way costumes create a world, the use of music or not — is a survival skill. The choreographer Twyla Tharp once scolded me for looking down at my paper to take notes during a run-through of one of her new works in the studio. It was harsh, but she was correct: There are consequences of the seemingly innocent act of glancing away from the action. I’ve been writing about dance for The Times since 2000 in the form of features, reviews and essays. (For 15 of those years, I was also the dance editor at Time Out New York, and at minimum, I see around 250 performances annually.) I’ve trained in ballet and modern dance, and for several years, I was a figure skater. Being a dancer isn’t a requirement of becoming a dance writer, but before a show, I’m active — I might run or swim — because it makes me feel like I’m more in tune with the moving bodies onstage. As audiences are dwindling, there are more performances than ever. Basically, I just want more people to see more dance. At The Times, I also pr... Link to the full article to read more