The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle and SexualityIn this challenging and lively book, Ramsay Burt examines the representation of masculinity in twentieth century dance. Taking issue with formalist and modernist accounts of dance, which dismiss gender and sexuality as irrelevant, he argues that prejudices against male dancers are rooted in our ideas about the male body and male behaviour. Building upon ideas about the gendered gaze developed by film and feminist theorists, Ramsay Burt provides a provocative theory of spectorship in dance. He uses this to examine the work of choreographers like Nijinsky, Graham, Bausch, while relating their dances to the social, political and artistic contexts in which they were produced. Within these re-readings, he identifies a distinction between institutionalised modernist dance which evokes an essentialist, heroic, `hypermasculinity'; one which is valorised with reference to nature, heterosexuality and religion, and radical, avant garde choreography which challenges and disrupts dominant ways of representing masculinity. The Male Dancer will be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural construction of gender. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
1 THE TROUBLE WITH THE MALE DANCER | 11 |
2 DANCE MASCULINITY AND REPRESENTATIONS | 31 |
3 LOOKING AT THE MALE | 49 |
MODERNISM AND HETERODOX REPRESENTATIONS OF MASCULINITY | 73 |
5 MEN MODERNISM AND MODERN AMERICAN DANCE | 99 |
6 AVANTGARDE STRATEGIES | 131 |
7 POST MEN | 155 |
NOTES | 193 |
| 203 | |
| 213 | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic Ailey Ailey’s Appalachian Spring appear argued audience avant-garde Ballets Russes Bausch behaviour Bluebeard Chapter Charnock Chodorow choreographers Clark contact improvisation conventions cultural forms Cunningham dance artists deconstructive developed Diaghilev display dominant Doris Humphrey duet early emotional erotic European example experience expression female dancers feminine feminist film Fokine Fokine’s Garafola gaze gender representation gestures Graham heterosexual homophobia homosexual Iago ibid idea ideologies José Limón Limón look mainstream male body male dance male dancers male roles Martha Graham masculine identity men’s modern dance modernist movement narrative Newson Nijinsky Nijinsky’s nineteenth century norms ofthe ofview Othello partner Paxton performance piece point of view political postmodern present problematic radical relation relationship representations of masculinity represented Russian Schéhérazade seen sexual Shawn signified social society solo sort spectacle spectator spectator’s stage Steve Paxton style suggests Ted Shawn theatre dance theory Theweleit traditional twentieth century western women