Critique Is Creative: The Critical Response Process® in Theory and Action

A thorough introduction and lively exploration of a widely recognized method for giving and getting useful feedback

Winner of Silver Nautilus for Creativity & Innovation, given by Nautilus Book Award, 2023



Devised by choreographer Liz Lerman in 1990, Critical Response Process® (CRP) is an internationally recognized method for giving and getting feedback on creative works in progress. In this first in-depth study of CRP, Lerman and her long-term collaborator John Borstel describe in detail the four-step process, its origins and principles. The book also includes essays on CRP from a wide range of contributors. With insight, ingenuity, and the occasional challenge, these practitioners shed light on the applications and variations of CRP in the contexts of art, education, and community life. Critique Is Creative examines the challenges we face in an era of reckoning and how CRP can aid in change-making of various kinds.

With contributions from:
Bimbola Akinbola, Mark Callahan, Lawrence Edelson, Isaac Gómez, Rachel Miller Jacobs, Lekelia Jenkins, Elizabeth Johnson Levine, Carlos Lopez-Real, Cristóbal Martínez, Gesel Mason, Cassie Meador, Kevin Ormsby, CJay Philip, Kathryn Prince, Sean Riley, Charles C. Smith, Shula Strassfeld, Phil Stoesz, Gerda van Zelm, Jill Waterhouse, Rebekah West

LIZ LERMAN (Tempe, AZ) is a choreographer, performer, writer, educator and speaker, and the recipient of numerous honors, including a 2002 MacArthur Genius Grant. She is the author of Hiking the Horizontal: Field Notes from a Choreographer, and Institute Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. JOHN BORSTEL (Silver Spring, MD) is an artist working at the crossroads of photography, performance, and text, currently working as an independent consultant following a 20-year career in programming and development for Dance Exchange.