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Dance: Reviews, Reception

Where to Look?

Finding reviews of a performance can start with UC Library Search or with a specific article index in TDPS—such as International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA) and International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance among others. Finding a review of a performance, however, usually also requires access to newspapers or trade publications from a specific place and time. To determine which newspaper database(s) to use, among the many available, consider the context of the performance you're looking for: Do you need reviews from a particular city? Do you need reviews for a contemporary performance or an historical one? 

Newspapers

News resources are especially helpful for finding information about contemporary authors and playwrights who are not yet the subjects of scholarly attention. They are also helpful when looking for historical context, interviews, reviews or biographical information.

  • LexisNexis Academic 
    Full text of some 16,000 individual titles of international, national and local newspapers and wire services; radio and television transcripts; and business, medical, industry, and legislative magazines, journals, and newsletters. Wide geographic coverage and translations from foreign-language sources, as well as news services like the Associated Press, Agence France Press, El Pais and Xinhua (New China) News Agency.
  • Access World News 
    Provides full-text of over 2,000 U.S. and international news sources with strong regional coverage of hundreds of California papers. Coverage usually from 1990's on. 
  • Times Digital Archive 
    Online access, fully searchable full text of over 200 years (1785 to 1985, with 1986 to 2003 added later this year) of The London Times, the "world's newspaper of record." [Note: "Sunday Times" is a distinct newspaper with no editorial connection to The Times London, and is not included in this database.]
  • Historical Newspapers Online 
    Contains four major historical resources: Palmer's Index to the Times, which covers The Times (London, 1790-1905); The Official Index to the Times (1906-1980); The Historical Index to the New York Times (1863- 1922); and Palmer's Full Text Online (1785-1870).
  • Historical Newspapers (ProQuest) 
    Backfiles of such newspapers as the Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1987), Los Angeles Times (1881-1987), New York Times (1851-2007), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal (1889-1993), and Washington Post (1877-1994).
  • Early American Newspapers 
    Access to hundreds of historic newspapers published 1690-1820. Can be cross searched with Early American Imprints, Series I and II, Early American Newspapers, American State Papers, and US Congressional Serial Set through the Archive of Americana. 
  • British Library Historical Newspapers 
    Contains historical runs of newspapers selected by the British Library as representative. It contains regional and national papers in England as well as papers from Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Content comes from penny papers read by the working class and papers advocating political or social movements such as Reform, Chartism and Home Rule.
  • Chronicling America 
    This site allows users to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1910 and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Includes papers digitized for the California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  • California Digital Newspaper Collection 
    The California Digital Newspaper Collection contains over 400,000 pages of significant historical California newspapers published from 1846-1922.
  • Ethnic News Watch 
    Indexes over 330 ethnic, minority, and native press publications. Contains news, culture, and history searchable in both English and Spanish. Also includes a retrospective backfile of titles (1959-1989).