Bill Cratty - Choreographic and Performance Style

Choreographic and Performance Style

Cratty's work was considered traditional, mainstream, modern dance by critics and was unique in the 1980s when postmodern, minimal, abstract dance was becoming popular. Cratty frequently voiced his desire to make dances that entertained. His choreography was praised for its sense of humor, narrative, and humanity. Cratty noted in interviews that even as a child he loved the movies of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and often his works were seen as a hybrid of concert dance and musical theatre, combining elements of both with mime and comedy. Dance Magazine noted "the simultaneous effect of a postmodern contemporary outlook coupled with an old-fashioned modern dance sensibility" in his works. As a performer, Cratty was called "pure and concentrated," and "a sensuous and virile dancer" who possessed "extraordinary stage presence" by Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times.