When the train leaves the station in Prague, I already start to imagine the bodies of my fellow critics from the three days spent together at a workshop and panel talk on dance writing at the Czech Dance Platform festival. 

The critic has never been a particularly popular person. In his poem Rezensent, published in 1774, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe writes: ‘Schlagt ihn tot den Hund! Er ist ein Rezensent.’ (‘Beat the dog to death! He is a reviewer.’).