Irish musician and dance critic Michael Seaver has been awarded a fellowship by the New York Times.

A leading exponent of Irish contemporary music, Michael is one of eight international dance critics chosen to work within the Institute of Dance Criticism at this year's American Dance Festival.

The National Endowment for the Arts is providing $1 million for the first two years of the programme of three institutes, which includes an institute for classical music and opera critics at Columbia University and theatre critics at the University of Southern California.

‘We consider this Institute to be the most important of activities in communicating the value of dance to the greater community,’ said Charles L. Reinhart, director of the American Dance Festival. ‘After all, it is not easy to verbalize what is generally a nonverbal art form.’

The institute aims to provide an antidote to the isolation in which most dance critics find themselves working, according to critic and historian Suzanne Carbonneau, who will co-ordinate the international participants.

‘It not only gives critics the opportunity to exchange ideas about dance writing but also, by virtue of its setting at the American Dance Festival, allows this to happen within an exciting dance environment,’ she says.

The American Dance Festival was established in 1934 in Bennington with founding artists Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. The site of more than 550 premieres, many of them landmark dances commissioned by the Festival, ADF has a worldwide reputation for discovering, commissioning and bringing deserved recognition to many of modern dance's finest talents.

Michael Seaver works as a musician, composer and dance critic. He is principal clarinettist with the RTE Concert Orchestra and a co-founder of the Crash Ensemble.