Some live artists purposefully never read reviews. Others would love to get a review, but don’t. A review is recognition that the performance happened, that someone went to see it and has something to say about it. Dance critic Deborah Jowitt says in this AudioStage podcast that reviewing is “inevitably a subjective act. I’m not neutral, I’m not objective, I hope I can be fair (…) (I) try to give something of its essence (…) how I and others seemed to respond (…)”. Being subjective is natural, because we all have our own opinions and feelings about things. However, universalizing our subjective view as if it were an objective fact is using our preferences as a measuring stick to pass judgement. “I don’t like it” is very different to “it’s bad”. Taking responsibility for our opinion and our experience leaves room for all the other opinions and experiences that, together with ours, make up reality.