I absolutely feel this way. There is a sharp delineation between Stevie's career before and after the Dance. She went from washed up has-been to rock legend nearly overnight.
The Dance was also a huge cutoff point in regards to her style and performances, too. The Dance was kind of the last hurrah for Stevie's fluidity of personal style. She has been pretty much locked into the same stage outfits for 17 years now. The Dance was also the last gasp of passion in her performances, too. Yes, Rhiannon was long dead by 1997- but we still had the wily Gold Dust Woman screams then. Just look at how on fire the woman was during her Street Angel performances, too. Post the Dance, her performances have been much more staid- it's as if she's moved into elder statesman mode or something.
All this being said, the Dance is kind of a two fold milestone- it signaled both the rebirth and death of her career. Rebirth because she was suddenly cool again for the first time in a decade and it put her stardom on a new plateau; death because it seemed to lock her into the role of living legend, which means the end of being a vital, changing, creative force.
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