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Men, Masculinities and Sexualities in Dance: Transgression and its Limits
- Author: Christofidou, Andria
Men, Masculinities and Sexualities in Dance: Transgression and its Limits
- Author: Christofidou, Andria
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About
This book examines men, masculinities and sexualities in Western theatrical dance, offering insights into the processes, actions and interactions that occur in dance institutions around gender-transgressive acts, and the factors that set limits to transgression. This text uses interview and observation data to analyze the conditions that encourage some boys and young men to become involved in this widely unconventional activity, and the ways through which they negotiate the gendered and sexual attachments of their professional identity. Most importantly, the book analyzes the opportunities male dancers find to develop a reflexive habitus, engage in gender transgressive acts and experiment with their sexuality. At the same time, it approaches gender and sexuality as embodied, and therefore as parts of identity that are not as easily amendable.
This book will be of interest to scholars in Gender and Sexuality Studies as well as Dance and Performance Studies.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- The Cultural Attachments of Western Theatrical Dance
- Gender, Sex, Sexuality: Theoretical and Conceptual Tools
- Matters of methodology
- Outlining the book
- References
- 2 Theoretical and conceptual elaborations
- (Un)doing gender
- Reflexivity and the habit of gender
- Men and masculinities
- Conclusion
- References
- 3 The gendering of Western theatrical dance
- The gendering of ballet
- The gendering of modern dance
- Dance today
- References
- 4 Becoming Dancers
- Discovering dance
- The pains and pleasures of dancing
- Conclusion
- References
- 5 The Practice of Dance, Habitus, and Heightened Reflexivity
- Reflexivity and habitus
- Dancing bodies, reflexive actors
- Reflexivity in ballet and contemporary dance
- Conclusion
- References
- 6 Behind the Curtains: Questioning sexuality, troubling gender
- Dance is a very gay world
- What does it mean to be a man?
- Conclusion
- References
- 7 Getting in Character: Just acting or gender embodied?
- Performing onstage: masculinity, sexuality and the body
- To be a leading man it requires a sense of masculinity
- Conclusion
- References
- 8 Male dancers negotiating the gendered and sexual attachments of dance
- Negotiating dancing identities
- Dance is butch, but not that manly
- Conclusion
- References
- 9 The grand finale
- The tensions of dance
- Men and masculinities in dance and beyond
- Limitations and Areas for Future research
- Concluding Remarks
- References
- Index
