The renowned cultural critic Joan Acocella passed away at the age of 78 in Manhattan on Sunday. Her son, Bartholomew Acocella, reported that the cause was cancer. For four decades, Acocella contributed essays about dance and literature for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. She wrote deeply about dancers and choreographers, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell, and George Balanchine. Her final articles for The New York Review of Books were a two-part commentary on “Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century,” by Jennifer Homans, her successor as The New Yorker’s dance critic.
Emily Greenhouse, the editor of The New York Review of Books, commented on Acocella’s writings, saying that “What she wrote for us was often mischievous and always delicious.” Acocella also wrote deeply about literature, ranging from Dante and Chaucer to Carlo Collodi and Agatha Christie. She also wrote books, including “Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism” (2000), which grew from an essay in The New Yorker, and “Mark Morris” (1993), about the dancer and choreographer. She spent her early career as an editor and writer at Random House and then became a senior critic at Dance Magazine in the 1980s. She later wrote dance criticism for The Daily News of New York, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal. She then went on to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993 and work as a staff writer for The New Yorker in 1995.
Her extensive literary and dance writings paralleled and informed one another’s subject matter: “Ballet, because it is fundamentally abstract, taught me to stay close to style and tone and not always to be so intent on the story. Conversely, literature taught me to be concerned about the moral life in dance, too, how people behave toward one another, and what they take from and give to one another,” she expressed in an interview with The Review in the 2020s.
It seems that ballet truly altered her path when, in the late 1970s, she learned that by joining the New York City Ballet’s guild, she could attend as many ballet shows as she wanted. Her love of ballet grew and within a few years, she separated from her husband and became a dance critic.
In addition to her critical writings, Ms. Acocella has been recognized for her personal essays about her family, health, and relationships. She was known to be deliberate in her essay writing, often meticulously researching her essay subjects. She has also been a keen writer on arts and entertainment, and she has compiled several award-winning nonfiction pieces and novels. She has been labeled as one of the greatest writers of our time.
Ms. Acocella is survived by her partner, Noël Carroll; two grandchildren; and a sister and brother. Her marriage to Mr. Acocella ended in divorce. She was lauded for being an observant and insightful writer, and her works will continue to resonate for generations to come.