Te fact that dance refects gendered sociocultural patterns comes as no surprise to any who have studied dance history, attended a dance perfor- mance, or participated in a dance class. Choreographers, dancers, dance teachers, critics, and all those who are part of the dance world are frst and foremost individuals who were shaped by the culture in which they grew and developed. When that culture tends to assign identities on the basis of gender, it is logical that creative expression in that culture may follow suit, albeit sometimes countered by the voices of artists who critique the status quo. Te felds of gender studies, women’s studies, queer studies, as well as the sciences and social sciences, have all investigated the concept and physical expression of gender “diference.”

Psychologist and researcher Cordelia Fine (2010) uses the term “neu- rosexism” to describe the explanations that various experts have created to describe diferences between men’s and women’s behavior that are thought to be “brain-based.” Te sexes are thought to have diferences that are hardwired to the point where, for instance, men are at a disadvantage where intuition is concerned and where women are at a disadvantage in mathematics. Fine investigates the studies that have been done on the brain relating to gender diference and reveals how fawed many of them are. A typical problem is the jump from brain structure to psychological function: physical diferences in men’s and women’s brains—such as the amount of white matter, specialization, and size of the corpus callosum— do not necessarily correlate to diference in behavior. Although Fine does

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believe that there are sex diferences in the brain, she fnds that “neither structural nor functional imaging can currently tell us much about difer- ences between male and female minds” (154). She deconstructs popular ideas of natural diferences by pointing to the ways in which people are conditioned from birth to be diferent on the basis of assigned gender, in- cluding those raised by parents who attempt “gender-neutral” households.

What are the implications of this type of research for dancers and the feld of dance studies? In dance and other physical activities, men and women are ofen thought to move diferently due to innate diferences in body structure. For instance, men generally have more upper-body strength than women (Jensen et al 2000), and women ofen have more hip fexibility than men (Etnyre and Lee 1988). Tese diferences, along with a cultural tendency to highlight stylistic elements perceived as either masculine or feminine, have produced some distinctly gendered styles of dance, with masculine styles ofen emphasizing leaps, jumps, power, and upper-body strength and feminine styles focused upon fexibility, fuidity, and emotion (see Bond and Schupp chapters in this book).

Of course, many contemporary choreographers realize that women and men need not be restricted by these movement stereotypes. Instead of emphasizing “diference” in their choreography, they fnd ways of keep- ing the choreography neutral by ignoring gender (for instance, giving all dancers the same movement regardless of gender). Another option is to undercut or transform gender roles in some way (Alterowitz 2014; Bell- ing, this volume; Boccadoro 2006), for instance using role reversal or regendering.

While physical factors certainly play a role in how people move, dance is about more than body construction, and the psyche of those in the feld is also important in how they approach their work as dancers, choreog- raphers, directors, and teachers. By the time dancers develop into artists, ofen in their late teen years, they have already participated in shaping themselves into gendered beings. Gender studies scholar Robert Con- nell (2002) notes, “People growing up in a gendered society unavoidably encounter gender relations, and actively participate in them . . . Young people learn how to negotiate the gender order. Tey learn how to adopt a certain gender identity and produce a certain gender performance” (79–81). Te messages that dancers receive and respond to regarding gen- der are deeply ingrained and afect their psyches, behavior, and creative

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output. Dancers and choreographers adapt to the “gender order” men- tioned above by fnding their own ways of being male, female, or “other.”

Although the professional dance world is ofen more tolerant than mainstream society when it comes to gender or sexual identities that fall outside of a strict binary (Polasek and Roper, this volume), this does not preclude daily (mostly unconscious) negotiations to maintain one’s gen- der status, whatever that may be. And in cases where dance gender roles are strictly defned as masculine or feminine, such as in dance competi- tions (Broomfeld 2011; Picart 2006; Schupp, this volume) or in a classical ballet, dancers must literally “perform gender” onstage, in a heightened form of the performance of gender that scholar Judith Butler discusses in her book Gender Trouble (1990/1999). Violations of these roles can lead to censure and can afect the outcome of competitions (Broomfeld 2011).

Gender roles onstage are only the tip of the iceberg where gender and dance are concerned. Tere are other venues where gender comes into play, including children’s and teenagers’ dance classes, dance rehears- als, leadership within dance companies and university dance depart- ments, and choreographer funding and prestige, to name a few. Some of the overarching questions prompting the writing of this book include: In what ways is dance gendered in Western society today? What is sig- nifcant about these fndings? How does gendering afect the agency of those within the dance world? Are there specifc problems that can be addressed—and if so, how?

Tis book aims to show how notions of gender operate within the dance world in the early twenty-frst century, based on empirical research focused on a variety of dance-related topics. Te editors hope to fll a gap in the dance literature by providing concrete evidence about how gender impacts the everyday lives of those in the dance world through surveys, interviews, analysis of data from institutional sources, and ac- tion research. Tis book builds on the work of previous research done on the topic of dance and gender, an area of study that developed as an outgrowth of feminist theory and gender studies beginning in the 1980s. Before discussing the contents of Dance and Gender more specifcally, it is important to understand the scope of the relevant scholarly literature in order to provide a context for discussion.

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Review of Literature

Tis review includes sources positioned primarily from a Western per- spective that are concerned with concert dance, dance education, and cultural and recreational dance forms found primarily in North America and Europe. Te authors acknowledge that this leaves some areas of the literature untouched, such as gender roles in dance within anthropologi- cal studies, as well as non-Western literature (Reed 1998).

Te consideration of race as it intersects with gender is another area that is not addressed in depth in the book. Although the crossover be- tween race and gender is discussed in the literature review in this chapter, as well as in Risner and Musil’s chapter in this volume, none of the other chapters in the book focus upon this important issue. Tis topic needs more attention in order to fully understand how racism and sexism coex- ist within the dance world, especially in the realms of professional ballet and postsecondary dance. Another important consideration that was not explored in depth is the consideration of gender beyond the binary of male and female. Although discussed in the introduction, gender diver- sity in all its dimensions within the world of dance is worthy of further investigation.

Tis review of the literature looks to contextualize the chapters within the book, which are written by authors from Canada, Australia, and the United States concerning dance within the authors’ own countries. Tere- fore, the sources presented here are those most relevant to the framing of this book and are not meant to represent the sum total of available litera- ture on dance and gender throughout the world. Te sources searched include books, articles, dissertations, and theses, and they pull from many areas of research, including dance and dance education; gender, women’s, and men’s studies; queer theory and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgen- dered studies; black studies; and cultural and popular culture studies.

Feminist Perspectives

Feminist theory has infuenced many felds since the 1980s, and among them is dance research (Daly 1991; Adair 1992; Oliver 1994; Marques 1998; Shapiro 1998; Stinson 1998b; Green 1999; Tomas 2003). Ann Daly (1991) noted, “Te inquiries that feminist analysis makes into the ways that the body is shaped and comes to have meaning are directly and immedi- ately applicable to the study of dance, which is afer all, a kind of living

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laboratory of the study of the body—its training, its stories, its way of be- ing and being seen in the world” (2).

Male gaze theory (Mulvey 1975) was originally developed as an expla- nation for how men viewed women in a flmic context; Daly extended this Freudian semiotic theory to include the viewing of dancers onstage. Laura Mulvey posited that women in cinema are represented for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer and thus become the object of the male gaze. Te woman as object is then made passive by the male gaze, mir- roring the asymmetrical power relationships in everyday life. Daly argues that dance holds the potential to disrupt the male gaze and that women could resist “being co-opted by the conventions and expectations of the male gaze” (1991, 3). Tis theory was widely embraced by feminist scholars in the 1990s; the tendency has been to view ballet and traditional concert dance training as vehicles for patriarchal oppression (Marques 1998; Stin- son 1998a, 1998b; Shapiro 1998). However, others protested this view (No- vack 1990; Banes 1998; Feurer 2001; Tomas 2003), criticizing feminists “who held ballet responsible for all that’s bad for women in dance” (Banes 1998, 4), noting the limitations of gaze theory. For instance, it assumes “an ahistorical universal structure of male, heterosexual looking for presum- ing that men, unlike women, are not objectifed through the gaze and for not taking account of diference, except along the lines of Freudian male/ female binary divide” (Tomas 2003, 159).

Feminist pedagogy recommends that teaching be inclusive, nonhier- archical, and maintain a multicultural, multiclass, and multiage perspec- tive. Embracing the body within a view of mind and body as a whole, and incorporating questioning of gender stereotypes were also recommended (Oliver 1994). Dance educators have proposed pedagogies incorporating gender issues; for instance, Sherry Shapiro (1998) proposes a theoretical framework for liberatory pedagogy that emerges from feminist and criti- cal perspectives involving self-exploration by both teacher and students. Shapiro argues for greater attention to social justice in arts education, especially concerning how the body is valued, and developed a pedagogy of embodiment in dance (2004). Daly (1994) considers how gender issues can shape dance history pedagogy and provide a rich basis for discussion.

Te issue of race as it intersects gender is also important to consider in dance education (West 2005). Educators must resist and transform gen- dered and hypersexualized assumptions and attitudes that devalue read- ings of black and brown bodies. Ananya Chatterjea (2004) examines the

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role of race, gender, and cross-cultural aesthetics in dance through the lens of choreography by Zawole Willa Jo Zollar and Chandralekha, claim- ing that their works “redefne notions of beauty and empowerment . . .” (xiv). “Womb Wars” by Zollar focuses on the body as the site of oppres- sion and violence. “Yantra” by Chandralekha focuses on sexuality and its political implications. Looking at the Latina dancer in Hollywood flm, Priscilla Ovalle (2006) fnds intersecting tropes of race and gender that stereotype the abilities of these performers.

Te concept of gender and sexuality as a performed identity is another theme in the literature. Judith Butler (1990) famously presented the idea that males and females learn to perform the behaviors and appearances that culture deems appropriate for each gender. Bodies are considered not as objects with inherent boundaries and properties but as material-dis- cursive phenomena (Allegranti 2011). Continuing the theme of women’s bodies, scholars have attended to the idea of perfection and how dancers strive to achieve it. Some writers are critical of this perfection-oriented mindset (Heiland, Murray, and Edley 2008), while others accept it, within limits (Grigner, et al. 2006).

Body image is a common concern for female dancers, and quantita- tive and qualitative research points to the need for a focus on wellness to better support girls and women in the dance studio (Heiland, et al. 2008; Oliver 2008; O’Flynn, et al. 2013). Pregnancy and dance is also considered (Schaumann 2010). Other articles look at body image and training issues specifcally within ballet (Aalten 2005; Oliver 2005; Pickard 2013; Pickard 2015). Finally, the Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance (Cash 2012) gives a comprehensive view from experts in the social, be- havioral, and biomedical sciences, demonstrating that body image is an important topic throughout the scholarly community. Since the 1990s, dance scholarship has been strongly infuenced by feminist scholarship, which has led to inquiry around the agency of the female dancing body both in the dance studio and on stage.

Social Construction of Gender

Te social construction of gender is a concept from feminist theory and posits that nurture rather than nature plays the primary role in devel- oping feminine and masculine traits throughout infancy and childhood. Within dance education, the social construction of gender is signifcant in forming student and parent attitudes toward dance. (Stinson, et al. 1990;

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Flintof 1991; Van Dyke 1992; Cushway 1996; Sanderson 2001; Stinson 1998a, 1998b, 2001; Gard 2001, 2003a; Green 2001, 2002–2003, 2004; Ris- ner 2002a, 2002b, 2004). In middle-class U.S. culture, dance is ofen as- sumed to be a natural part of a young girl’s activities. Beginning as young as three years old, girls may grow up taking classes on a regular basis, adopting values “which teach that it is good to be obedient and silent, good not to question authority or to have ideas which might confict with what one is being asked to do” (Van Dyke 1992, 120). Te typical dance class experience revolves around the teacher talking and demonstrating, with students replicating the movement presented, rather than discuss- ing, questioning, or creating. Tis hidden curriculum in dance reinforces traditional gender expectations for girls including passivity, obedience, and escapism (Stinson, et al. 1990; Van Dyke 1992; Smith 1998; Stinson 1998b, 2005). Tis type of learning tends to produce passive followers rather than active leaders (Stinson, et al. 1990; Van Dyke 1992) and may also contribute to further gender bias in dance. Some suggestions have been made about how to approach these problems (Warburton 2009), however, there has yet to be an organized efort in the dance education community where teachers commit to adjusting their curricula to address gender bias (Oliver 1994; Kahlich 2001). Gender is a topic that should be addressed in teaching in order to make it visible within the curriculum (Ferdun 1994; Risner 2006, 2008; Stinson 2005).

Research in dance education has drawn from social foundations in education, particularly regarding schooling and its efect upon gender identity (Risner and Barr 2015). In tandem with theory in areas such as feminism, gender studies, critical theory and pedagogy, and men’s studies, dance research in the twenty-frst century now discusses issues of social justice including gender stereotyping (Risner and Stinson 2010; Barr and Risner 2014). Cultural assumptions about gender and dominant power relationships produce unjust educational and sociocultural outcomes (Clark 1994; Horwitz 1995; Marques 1998; Shapiro 1998, 2004; Smith 1998; Green 2000, 2001, 2002–2003, 2004; Schafman 2001; Keyworth 2001; Risner 2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2005; Blume 2003; Letts and Nobles 2003; Gard 2003a, 2003b).

Some research analyzes diferences between the movement tendencies of boys and girls. One 1995 study of eight hundred elementary school chil- dren found signifcant diferences between boys and girls in dance classes. Boys covered large amounts of space, used more physical energy, moved

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quickly, took physical risks, and approached their own presentations with confdence. Girls worked in limited space, moved at slow to moderate tempos, did not take physical risks, spent considerable time standing still, and apprehensively showed their presentations. When working in mixed gender groups, boys assumed leadership positions frequently; girls ofen complained that boys would not cooperate because they separated them- selves from the group (Willis 1995). Karen Bond (1994) found that al- though a group of children initially moved in gender-diferentiated ways, with the use of masks and multisensory ritual, gender roles seemed to disappear.

Another study examined the extent to which personal interest ac- counted for boys’ and girls’ learning outcomes in a middle school dance unit within a physical education class, fnding that situational interest may motivate all students, but the greater personal interest on the part of the girls was correlated to higher skill/knowledge outcomes (Shen, et al. 2003). A study on intergenerational dance looked at a father-son dance class where participants ranged in age from fve to forty-fve years old; they created an aesthetic community with a group style (Richard 2009).

proofContact improvisation ofers an alternative to traditional gender roles through weight sharing, lifs, and falls that are not prescribed by gen-der. Tis dance form challenges sexism, homophobia, elitism, and power relations, and possibilities for more meaningful human interactions are broadened (Horwitz 1995). Karen Schafman (2001) claims that contact improvisation has contributed to postmodern dance by ofering partner- ing skills, exploring gender identities, and performing varied representa- tions of touch and weight. As performed by a range of bodies (trained, untrained, diferently abled, diferently sized), contact improvisation al- lows for issues of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and diference to be exposed more candidly. Tis egalitarian attitude is possible largely due to the ac- ceptance of the idea that gender is socially constructed, and as such, can be socially “unconstructed.” Overall, the research on the social construc- tion of gender within dance contexts focuses strongly on dance training and how it can either participate in or resist gender stereotyping.

Gender Equity

Dance has commonly been considered a “woman’s world,” yet this has not necessarily translated to equity between the sexes. Data from the United States has shown that men have an advantage over women when it comes

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to employment, income, scholarships, and grants. (Van Dyke 1996; Mc- Guire 1999; Samuels 2001). Male-headed dance companies also receive more invitations to perform at prestigious U.S. venues such as Jacob’s Pil- low, the American Dance Festival, and the Spoleto Dance Festival (Van Dyke 1996). Additionally, men head a proportion of dance companies far greater than their numbers within the dance world would suggest. (Adair 1992; Hanna 1988; Van Dyke 1996). In the ballet world, female choreog- raphers are a rarity, even in the twenty-frst century (Meglin and Brooks 2012).

Within higher education dance departments, women again far out- number men, but males tend to hold more leadership positions; women also have less career mobility (Stinson, et al. 1990; Clark 1994; Van Dyke 1996; Lodge 2001; Samuels 2001). Sue Stinson (1998a) notes that female and male responsibilities in higher education tend to divide along gen- der lines, with females in “housekeeping” or care-giving roles relative to students, staf, and faculty, and males in managerial roles with decision- making capabilities. Women in dance administration ofen spend large amounts of time doing service and caretaking work within departments— to the detriment of their own scholarly and creative work. A 2004 study found the typical faculty profle to be a “49-year-old female, part-time, non-tenure-track instructor teaching up to six classes per semester, re- porting no creative activity over the past two years” (Risner and Prioleau 2004, 350). Research in gender equity in dance has shown that diferences between the career status of men and women in various areas of dance are real and signifcant.

Men in Dance

Te topic of masculinity in dance is key to work by scholars Michael Gard (2006), Doug Risner (2007c, 2009a,b), and Mark Broomfeld (2011). Te authors point out that dance both contradicts and plays into culturally mandated versions of masculinity, in dance studios, performances, and popular television dance shows. Author Maxine Leeds Craig (2014) pos- its that in the Swing Era, men of all races participated in popular dance, but in the 1960s, white men lef the dance foor due to suburbanization, homophobia, and fragmentation of music cultures; changing beliefs con- cerning race, class, and sexuality have redefned what it means to be a man in American culture.

Usually when male dancers do not ft the masculine stereotype, they

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are criticized and made to feel inferior. Bullying of young male dancers is common (Risner 2014a) and should be addressed in a supportive environ- ment by educators. Male teachers of dance within physical education also experience prejudice (Keyworth 2001). Gender and gay male stereotypes are revealed as problems stemming from societal attitudes that manifest themselves within the dance world (Warburton 2009; Polasek and Roper 2011; Risner 2014b). However, the subculture of ballet can ofer an alter- native form of masculinity that allows for expression and exploration (Berger 2003).

Dance teachers ofen mention the need to create a comfortable en- vironment for boys and men in the dance studio by inviting them to contribute ideas for movement, music, costumes, and themes (Risner, et al. 2004). Strategies for cultivating a more robust male participation in dance include using famous heterosexual male dancers as role models (Hanna 1988), masculinist comparisons between dance and sport (Craw- ford 1994), and minimizing the signifcant gay male population (Spur- geon 1999). In Western culture, male participation in dance is generally frowned upon (Sanderson 2001; Stinson 2001; Risner 2002a, 2002b; Gard 2003b), largely due to the fact that dance is viewed as a feminine activity. Strategies for combatting these prejudiced attitudes include positioning the social construction of gender as a conscious aspect in dance education and training as well as validating and afrming individual diferences in gender and culture (Bond 1994; Kerr-Berry 1994).

Working to counter the idea that dance is not for boys, projects such as “Boys Dancing” in Warwick, UK, have successfully challenged common ideas about dance and gender (Holdsworth 2013). Jennifer Fisher and An- thony Shay (2009) look across cultural borders in their study of masculin- ity in dance and ofer discussion of “choreophobia,” “homophobia,” and “efeminophobia” as well as descriptions of dance from a variety of world regions and time periods. In the United States, the men of early modern dance broke away from the founding women to create their own styles of expression (Guo 2014). Te American male dancer of the twentieth cen- tury had varied expressions of masculinity, with more ready acceptance in tap dance than in modern and ballet (Jowitt 2010). Research on boys and men in dance has become much more prevalent in the twenty-frst cen- tury than in earlier decades and has brought to light the deep discomfort that Western culture, and particularly the United States, has with males who dance.

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Queer Teory and GLBT Studies

Queer theory and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered studies have also contributed to dance scholarship (Bristow 1988; Burt 1995; Foster 1997; Desmond 2001). Ramsay Burt (1995) charts the development of ho- mophobia as a means for males to culturally rationalize their close at- traction to one another. Although men might enjoy watching other men dance, in order to do so, males must profess a repulsion toward homo- sexual attraction. Burt argues that straddling this important boundary for men, acceptable homosocial bonding and repressed homosexual attrac- tion, is the crux for the heterosexual male spectator watching men dance. When extrapolated societally, this is a key element in men’s culturally pre- scribed anxiety toward gay men.

Dance literature has critically explored prejudice and homophobia di- rected toward both gay and straight men in dance. (Keyworth 2001; Spar- ling 2001; Risner 2002a, 2002b; Gard 2003a, 2003b; Risner and Tompson 2005). Tese scholars suggest that dance education may unwittingly re- produce asymmetrical power relationships, social inequities, and sexism by reafrming the status quo. In doing so, the dance profession ignores opportunities for diminishing homophobia and antigay bias. Te dance education profession might beneft from knowing more about its male students and their attitudes and experiences rather than trying to increase male numbers by making dance more traditionally masculine (i.e., dance as sport, competition, stunts).

Analysis of the work of queer, lesbian, and gay choreographers includ- ing Katie Pule, Deborah Lohse, Mark Morris, Matthew Bourne, Sean Dorsey, and Masaki Iwana has appeared in the conversation of scholarly dance criticism, focusing on the upending of traditional gender tropes in new works or the reimagining of classical and romantic ballets (Alterow- itz 2014, Duerden and Rowell 2013, Jowitt 2010, Midgelow 2007, Tikkun 2010). Queer identity politics can also form the focus of concert dance (Hart 2014). Analysis extends into the realm of popular dance as well in an examination of gay male dance in clubs, positing that as homophobia has decreased, “Popular choreographies of gay men’s dance have become more feminine in expression” (Peterson 2011, 608). An ethnography of the Detroit queer ballroom scene examines ballroom as a cultural phe- nomenon that undercuts traditional notions of gender and community (Bailey 2013). Queer and GLBT studies has contributed greatly to dance

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scholarship by pointing out how homophobia shapes attitudes through outside pressure to conform to preconceived notions of masculinity and also includes voices of choreographers, dancers, and scholars who are working against these restrictions.

Modern and Ballet

Some dance history scholars have taken a backward look at genres and artists, reinterpreting their work through the lens of gender. France in the eighteenth (Tomko 2007), nineteenth, (Lee 2014), and twentieth cen- turies (Karthas 2006), and 1930s America (Mozingo 2008), all serve as contexts for exploring dance and gender relations. Some research focuses on particular choreographers or performers. Vaslav Nijinsky is famous for his strength and agility but also presents a transgressive image related to his sexuality as a performer: a blend of feminine sensitivity and mas- culine virtuosity (Burt 2001). Graham’s work provokes analysis on “how the body and the feminine are inscribed” (Dempster 2010, 225), invites reinterpretation focusing on gendered, feminist, and queer perspectives (Toms 2013) and notes its afliation with modernism (Richmond 2003). Two other authors also connect modernism and gender, one looking at Delsartism (2011) and the other at German choreographers including Lotte Goslar (Mozingo 2008).

Anna Pavlova, Albertina Rasch, and Rosina Galli are early twentieth- century choreographers whose artistry suggests a link between ballet and feminism (Casey 2009). Ruth Page is a rare phenomenon: a female bal- let choreographer in the mid-twentieth century. Her work was deemed second-rate by critics who used gender as a focus (Harris 2012).

Examinations of more recent work include choreographer Siobhan Da- vies’s Rushes (1982), which blends traditional and nontraditional gender roles (Jordan and Tomas 2010). A study of contemporary British dance theater shows how six artists deconstruct gender and heteronormativity (Sears 2002). Looking at contemporary ballet criticism, Clare Crof (2014) examines columns focused on NYCB ballerina Wendy Whelan, noting that reviews frequently focus on her onstage relationship to male part- ners, her relationship to choreographers, and her relationship to iconic fgures of femininity in ballet, rather than on Whelan herself.

Study of the ballerina has been a popular theme in the last two de- cades. Anna Aalten (2005) did an ethnographic study of female ballet dancers, positing that each has two bodies: “the perceived and tangible

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body they feel and see in the mirror every day . . . [and] the ideal body that is presented to a dancer by her teachers . . . and choreographers” (60). A disjunction arises as the ballerina strives to make her body ft the ideal through pushing her own physical boundaries, sometimes to the detriment of her health. Heather Ritenburg (2010) makes a Foucauldian analysis of the problem of the ideal dancer’s body and how this slim ideal has been normalized through popular magazines and children’s books.

Jennifer Fisher (2007) interprets contemporary ballerinas in histori- cal context by interviewing ten women (ages twenty-fve to eighty-three) about their involvement with ballet. Internalized and conficting narra- tives of beauty and power fgure prominently; Fisher concludes, “Today, even the of-neglected health of the ballerina is starting to be tended to, as draconian training procedures are increasingly being interrogated and revised. Ever so slowly, women have started to embrace their futures more positively, becoming choreographers, attending university while dancing, and continuing to invest even their princesses with no-nonsense force and exactitude” (14–15).

Amy Koritz (1995) contrasts ballet and modern dance through the idea of embodiment. Taking a cue from literary studies, Koritz looks at the symbolist tradition and how it necessitated the author standing apart from his or her creation. She posits that this attitude is also true for ballet but not for modern artists such as Isadora Duncan and Maude Allan, who so embodied their work that they could not be separated from it. Following the thread of embodiment, Lisa Arkin (1994) writes about using women’s bodies and experiences as source material for choreography, with female bodies assumed as a source of positive rather than negative self-images. Te pregnant body (Schuamann 2010) and Jewish identity (Rossen 2006) are also considered within the context of modern dance. Female identity in experimental Middle Eastern dance is explored in another study, show- ing how this new form reinterprets gender on the margins of traditional Middle Eastern dance (Osweiler 2011).

Adrienne McLean (2008) writes about ballet and the ways that au- diences learn about it through flm, noting that the complexities of the dancing body are typically subordinated to the necessity of plot which embraces the “natural order” of gendered roles in flms such as Te Red Shoes (1948) and more recently Save the Last Dance (2001) and Te Com- pany (2003). Te dance flm Amelia (2002) is discussed through the lens of feminist and poststructuralist perspectives, showing how choreographer

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Eduoard Lock presents ambiguous gender identities that challenge bal- letic convention (Ireland 2009).

Within ballet and modern dance, historians have analyzed past eras through a contemporary gender lens, while other researchers have looked at training, embodiment, and identity. Te twenty-frst century has brought an increased awareness of the dangers of harsh ballet training and a better understanding of women’s attitudes toward their own bodies.

Social, Religious, Popular, and Recreational Dance

In a historical vein, Linda Tomko (1999) focuses on dance as a vehicle for cultural intervention in Progressive-era United States, showing how middle-class women blended foreign and U.S. practices and negotiated gender issues in education, social work, dance-hall reforms, dance in- novations, and dance patronage. Another historical study looks at the phenomenon of gender role-reversal in American dance since 1850, in- cluding practices such as the Sadie Hawkins Day dance (McKernan 2002), and Kathleen Casey studies cross-dressing and race-crossing in the era of vaudeville (2010). Also historical is a study on jazz, gender, and dance in postwar France (Carter 2004).

Moving into the twenty-frst century, scholars have presented ideas on dance and gender within Reform Judaism (Newstadt 2007) and Mata- chine Mexican American dances in the US Midwest (Christ 2010). Amer- ican vaudeville (Casey 2010), social dance in Chicago from 1910 to 1925 (Bryant 2003), and New Orleans carnival balls of 1870–1920 (Atkins 2008) are other sites of study.

Te movie Dirty Dancing (1987) is the subject of a collection of es- says (Tzioumakis and Lincoln 2013) focusing on symbolism within the narrative; the flm is posited as a female coming-of-age tale with cross- class elements, and discussions ofen use gender as a category of analysis. Ballroom dance gets close scrutiny through the lenses of gender, race, class, and nationality (Angus 2010, McMains 2003, Picart 2006); scholars acknowledge the stylized gender roles that men and women must play, particularly in a competition situation. Ballroom is also the context for an analysis of soccer star Hope Solo on the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars. Within the competition, the show’s producers create a mediated portrayal of Solo’s gender roles, presenting clear lessons on the construc- tion of gender and its narration (Butler, et al. 2014). Also within the realm of entertainment, the Broadway chorus is posited as the site of a particular

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construction of gender manifested in chorus “boys” and “girls” (Van Aken 2006).

Researcher Matthew Atencio (2008) studied minority adolescents who danced as a leisure activity, showing the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, and class. His analysis focuses on how the women engaged with dance cultures that were underpinned by particular dance forms that re- produced versions of “normalized” femininity but also allowed the con- struction of multiple and shifing minority ethnic subjectivities. A follow- up article (Atencio and Wright 2009) examined a dance program at an inner-city high school that supported race and class hierarchies, along with dominant notions of femininity.

In contrast to the negative body image issues discussed in the ballet and modern dance literature, belly dancers seem to have avoided this problem. A study of 103 belly dancers showed broad and inclusive body image norms, lack of pressure for body image conformity, and high levels of body satisfaction (Downey, et al. 2010).

One researcher explored the gendered dynamics of “grinding,” which refers to sexualized dancing common at college parties, drawing on the observations of student participant observers. Tis research found that men initiate this behavior more ofen and more directly than women (Ronen 2010). Within the strip-club scene, Mary Nell Trautner (2005) ex- amined gender and class diferences among four diferent clubs. Trautner found a distinction between middle-class and working-class strip clubs in the ways the women performed femininity, with physical presentation and movement style adjusted for the class of clientele at each location. A study of the self-concept of male strippers who dance for women found that participants reported a positive sense of self and an enhanced self- concept as a result of stripping (Scull 2013).

Dance scholarship now more than ever is attending to genres outside the canon of ballet and modern dance, including popular dance. Tis scholarship shows that gender roles are ubiquitous in dance, no matter the genre or style, and can be found in religious styles such as the Matachine dances, as well as the more plebian strip club scene.

Conclusion for Review of Literature

Perhaps the two most-researched themes within the area of dance and gender are: (1) women’s bodies and how they are presented on stage, and (2) how male dancers disrupt traditional ideas of masculinity. Tese

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themes began appearing in the 1990s and have continued to be a source of scholarly interest. However, the output on dance and gender in the twenty-frst century has grown tremendously and extended into many ar- eas heretofore untouched including Reform Judaism, experimental Mid- dle Eastern dance, and ballroom dance. It is evident that all areas in the arts and humanities have been infuenced by discussions of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation, which trace their origins to women’s, men’s, black, Latino/Latina, and queer studies. It is logical that these discussions should extend into the dance world, since no aspect of life is untouched by gender and its social construction. Particularly since social dance has been used as a tool of acculturation for centuries, it is not surprising that learning dance of any kind teaches something about the nature of being male or female. Tis scholarship gives readers a window into the many ways that gender has been shaped and reshaped within the dance world, as well as the problems it has caused and eforts made to solve them.

Outside the Gender Binary

It is important to acknowledge that the conversation around gender ex- tends beyond a discussion of male and female, as noted in the “Queer Teory/GLBT” section of the review of literature. Transgendered, inter- sex, androgynous, and genderqueer are all types of gender identities not covered by the normal binary of male and female. Transgendered indi- viduals are those whose gender identity does not match the sex assigned to them at birth (112, Killerman). “Intersex” refers to those born with ambiguous genitalia; androgynous individuals are those whose physical characteristics are linked to both genders. Finally, genderqueer is an um- brella term referring to anyone outside the male/female norm and may refer to someone who considers himself or herself bigender (both male and female), genderless, moving between genders, or a third gender (220, Killerman).

Tese gender identities and expressions outside the norm are impor- tant to acknowledge because there are dancers, choreographers, dance educators, and others within the dance world who identify with them. And although some artists feel that their alternative gender identities are personal and so do not draw attention to them in their work, others or- ganize dance companies around them. For instance, Sean Dorsey Dance has a show about LGBT lives: Uncovered: Te Diary Project. Dorsey is a

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transgender artist who has won national acclaim: Dorsey’s company was named “San Francisco’s best dance company” by the San Francisco Weekly, and Dorsey was included in Dance Magazine’s (2010) “Top Twenty-fve to Watch.” Te company toured the country in 2015 with a show about the impact of AIDS on the gay and transgender community, Te Missing Generation (http://www.seandorseydance.com/).

Another transgender artist, Niv Acosta, participated in a 2011 NYC panel on transgender dance where he noted that he binds his chest to make himself appear more male, and he spoke of the problem of being assumed to be female. He also cautions dance teachers not to assume the genders of their students, asking them to use gender-neutral terms such as “dancers” rather than gender-linked terms such as “ladies.” Acosta feels that performance is an opportunity to transcend gender and that the stage is a powerful place to be. (NY Live Arts 2011) He says about his work I Shot Denzel: “[It] has represented black masculine identity in performance, as seen from my perspective as a queer trans-masculine identifed young black person. I’m working with many ideas that continue to interest me such as, death, grieving through sound experiences, original philosophi- cal text, voguing, and fear . . . How do I navigate being transgender in dance? Identifying as black in dance? Identifying as queer in dance? And not always be defant or ‘challenging?’” (https://www.kickstarter.com/ projects/nivacosta/niv-acostas-world-premiere-of-i-shot-denzel).

Since discrimination against transgender people is common in West- ern culture, being “out” in public is an act of personal courage. Dancers including Dorsey and Acosta who proclaim their transgender identities, as well as those who choose to keep them private, are part of the evolving conversation on dance and gender.

Overview of Book

Dance and Gender is organized around three general subject areas: equity in concert dance, gender in the dance studio, and gender in higher educa- tion. Each chapter discusses a unique empirical study giving evidence of some aspect of gender within the feld of dance. Equity within the concert dance world is discussed by authors Jan Van Dyke, Eliza Larson, and Ga- reth Belling in their chapters. Van Dyke and Larson particularly focus on material success in the concert dance arena. Van Dyke’s “Dance in Amer- ica: Gender and Success” reports on grants and awards from organizations

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such as the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as other private, fed- eral, state, and local funding sources. Tese grants are ofen major means of support for nonproft dance companies, and thus who gets these grants may determine which companies survive and thrive. Larson examines equity in the nonproft world from the perspective of performance venues and choreographic opportunities in “Behind the Curtain: Exploring Gen- der Equity in Dance among Choreographers and Artistic Directors.” She presents data from the 2012–2014 seasons at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the American Dance Festival, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, three of the most prestigious U.S. concert dance presenters.

Also exploring concert dance, but from a diferent vantage point, is Gareth Belling’s chapter on his own experiences choreographing gen- der within contemporary ballet. Belling details his action research in his chapter “Engendered: An Exploratory Study of Regendering Contempo- rary Ballet.” Belling choreographed various duets that were outside the heteronormative male-female partnering. Tere was a range of combina- tions, including male/male, female/female, male/female with the female in the typically male role and vice versa, as well as traditional role playing, followed by short audience questionnaires focused on interpretation of the duets.

Te next grouping of articles explores the idea of gender in the dance studio setting within both adolescent and adult populations. Tere is evi- dence supporting the idea that girls and boys, as well as men and women, experience dance class and rehearsal diferently. Karen Schupp’s “Sassy Girls and Hard-Hitting Boys: Dance Competition Culture and Gender” focuses on adolescent dancers and training that they undergo in order to succeed in this world. She points out that competitions “encode implicit and explicit messages about gender,” (000) requiring girls to appear se- ductive and emotionally demonstrative and boys to be assertive and in control of their female partners. In her chapter “Boys Only! Gender-Based Pedagogical Practices in a Commercial Dance Studio,” Carolyn Hebert discusses the pros and cons of placing boys in a separate class. She reveals the approaches that studios feel they must use to bring boys in the door, ofering boys-only classes that emphasize athleticism in order to counter homophobia. Also focusing upon male dancers, “Friendship Formation among Professional Male Dancers” by Kate Polasek and Emily Roper uses the lens of relational-cultural theory as the basis for conversations with adult professional males. Teir interviews explore the nature of friendship

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relationships between these dancers and other men and women in their dance companies.

Te fnal theme of the book is higher education, refected in articles by Karen Bond, Doug Risner, and Pam Musil. Bond’s “‘Boys are Mo- rons’ . . . ‘Girls are Gross’: Let’s Dance!” looks at college students’ refec- tions on their own experiences of gender in childhood, as well as their responses to an article that chronicled a children’s dance program that successfully avoided gendered movement. Te study analyzed 267 written responses to the prompt: “What messages about gender did you receive as a child?” teasing out themes such as “the gender binary,” “dance and the family,” “dance and/as the feminine,” and “gender trials.” Moving out of the classroom and into dance administration, Risner and Musil’s “Lead- ership and Gender in Postsecondary Dance: An Exploratory Survey of Dance Administrators in the United States” shows gender shifs begin- ning in the 1990s, when more men began to be hired in higher education dance. Te analysis looks at gender representation, equity, workplace is- sues, professional motivations, and career choices of dance administra- tors, using both quantitative and qualitative data.

Each author follows a diferent path of inquiry and develops conclu- sions based on the data gathered. Taken together, these chapters show how gender infuences dance as a feld. Gender plays a signifcant role in shaping physical expression, classroom experiences, performance oppor- tunities, and other aspects of the feld; while this is not always perceived as problematic, it can be. Tese fndings show how some of the practices within the feld, as well as societal pressures in general, can create envi- ronments that are not conducive to the health, happiness, and success of those in the dance world. However, they also show ways that dancers, choreographers, and teachers are working to free this art form and its sup- porting structures from restrictions associated with gender stereotyping.

Te dance community can strive to eliminate discrimination and open up new possibilities for expression and achievement in studios, choreog- raphy, performance venues, and institutions of higher education. Te frst step toward doing that is to understand the status quo regarding gender in the dance world. As these authors have so ably demonstrated, gender matters in the world of dance, and now we must decide how to respond. Te new knowledge presented in the following chapters provides ample opportunity for responses and further investigations.

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