How did postmodern dance expand the kinds of performances that critics had to cover?

Postmodern dance, which emerged in the 1960s, significantly expanded the scope of performances that critics were required to cover by challenging traditional definitions of dance and theatricality.12

As choreographers began to abandon virtuoso technique in favor of ordinary movements—such as walking, running, and skipping—they also moved performances out of traditional theaters and into nontraditional spaces like lofts, galleries, and outdoor settings. Furthermore, postmodern works frequently incorporated elements that fell outside the conventional boundaries of dance, including:13

• Mixed-media and technology: The integration of film, sound, and other visual effects.1
• Interdisciplinary performance: The use of speech, singing, and improvisation.1
• Conceptual structures: A focus on simple movement games, tasks, or the repetition and accumulation of phrases, often discarding traditional narrative and spectacle.3

This shift forced critics to move beyond evaluating technical virtuosity or dramatic storytelling. Consequently, the four cornerstones of dance criticism—description, interpretation, context, and evaluation—were refocused to place a greater emphasis on description, as critics sought to articulate these new, often minimalist or conceptual, performance paradigms.2