Young Critical Practices: Ways of Thinking in and With the Arts

This essay is a line of thought still in the making, in which I am interested in what a critical practice for youth is or can be. How is criticism by children and youth defined and practiced in the performing arts field today? With philosopher Rosi Braidotti’s claim on thinking as “what being alive feels like” and Irit Rogoff’s famous division of approaches to critical thinking, I would like to turn from the term “criticism” and towards a “critical practice”: How can we as adult organisers invite or facilitate for a range of critical practices for youths? The essay uses my own critical practice as an entry point to look at some examples of critical practice that are in use in the field today.