Art Intercepts turns 3! Well, sort of.

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It’s my bloggerversary!

Even though I technically bought the domain in 2009, on September 15 three years ago I pushed “publish” on the very first blog post in this crazy adventure.  68 posts later (this one here makes 69), I’m still trying to figure out what Art Intercepts is.

And that’s ok.

The only thing I ever wanted out of this blog was to serve the dance community. So I ask you, am I doing that? I’m following your lead, and right now it seems that what we need, in Chicago at least, is coverage. Dwindling print publications are giving us bloggers the authority and credibility to promote and critique your stuff.  That’s a pretty big change that’s been happening since I first started blogging.

So the site has changed a lot. It started out as a muddy, brown, static mess with a lot of information about ankle injuries.  I have a lot of customer service representatives to thank for the site you see today, and the perfectionist in me isn’t done yet (like, for example, fixing that smooshed picture of Michael Utoff in the sidebar scroller…). Personally, I think I’ve changed as a writer, too.  I’m pretty sure that back then my paragraphs were as muddy and brown as the website was.

Three years ago I was totally confused about dance, and I’m not sure how or when I went from a disgruntled barista to a dance critic and writer, but as the site evolves, so do I.  Don’t worry, I’m still really confused about dance, but continually having the opportunity to share in and talk about all the amazing live performance going on… how cool is that?

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me on this little project I call Art Intercepts.  Here’s to many more bloggerversaries to come!

Author: Lauren Warnecke

Lauren Warnecke is a freelance dance critic, contributing to the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Magazine. She is senior editor of See Chicago Dance. Lauren covers dance across the Midwest and writes regularly for Dance Magazine and Pointe with additional bylines in Milwaukee Magazine, St. Louis Magazine and Dance Teacher. Forthcoming publications include essays on ballet training in Chicago (University of Illinois Press) and Shirley Mordine (University of Akron Press). In 2020, Lauren published an opinion piece on the impact of COVID-19 on the arts in the South African journal Agenda. Lauren holds degrees in dance and kinesiology and has presented research on dance training practices at the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science. She has co-facilitated critical dance writing intensives in Chicago and Durban, South Africa, and participated in writing residencies at the National Center for Choreography, Bates Dance Festival and JOMBA! Contemporary Dance Experience. Lauren teaches dance history and kinesiology for dancers, with part-time appointments at Loyola University Chicago and Illinois Wesleyan University.