Dance day has come and gone, stuck as it was in the middle of Lesbian Visibility Week which ends today. So this year, I'm going to combine the two and focus on lesbian visibility in dance. 🥳🎊🎉🎉🏳️🌈💃💃🏽💃🏿💃🏼🩰🥧🧁🍰🥂🍾🍹🍻 This year is the 40th anniversary of International Dance Day, first celebrated in 1982. The 29th of April was chosen in honour of Jean-Georges Noverre, founder of modern ballet, which is why my focus this year is on ballet in particular. 🩰
The combination of Lesbian Visibility and Dance Day raises the question: Where are the lesbian dancers, including classical ballet dancers, 🩰 modern ballet dancers, tap dancers, contemporary dancers and so on? I don't just mean those that have gone on to set up their own dance companies. Dance companies of all genres should be fully LGBTQIAPD+ inclusive 🏳️🌈 so LGBT+ dancers don't need to start their own company to work in a safe, inclusive environment.
I also don't mean the token few lesbian dancers/ choreographers, such as, Maud Allan (1873-1956); Emma Portner (1994-); Tiina Lindfors (1958-); Gina Gibney (who has her own company which attracts a few lesbian dancers); Julianne Hough (1988-); Marion Morgan (1881-1971, choreographer and screenwriter whose partner was the film director, film maker and lecturer, Dorothy Arzner 1897-1979); Fatima Robinson (1971-); Yvonne Rainer (1934-, choreographer, film maker and feminist, whose partner is the author and lecturer Martha Gever 1947-); Elizabeth Streb (1950-, choreographer, performer, dance teacher, whose wife is the journalist Laura Flanders (1961-).
I'm sure there are some I have overlooked but none of the above are British or live in the UK! So here I am, a British lesbian dancer, sticking out like a sore thumb and yet to come across any fellow lesbian dancers, be they dance students, dance teachers or choreographers. And that's before I become greedy and try to also find 🧐 non-binary dancers, teachers and choreographers!
The above list is a pretty slim one, given it dates back to the nineteenth century!
So what's the problem? Lesbians are women who look like women, and are biologically women (TERF test passed, I doubt there are any trans classical ballet dancers 😢) so what are companies nit-picking over? Why are they excluding lesbians? How do they even know a woman dancer is a lesbian since they don't wear a pin badge on their lapel with 'lesbian' written on it to a dance audition? It's statistically impossible! I can only think that you'd have to stalk them to know or gain data from somewhere you shouldn't. Or pressurize them to remain in the closet. It may be that lesbians tend to be physically stronger (because they are often sporty so don't subscribe to looking vulnerable) but that should be a positive because dance is physically demanding. We emphasize dance is for girls and women but when it comes down to taking it to a professional level, dance, especially ballet, suddenly becomes for cis heterosexual women only (after all, we don't hear about bisexual or pansexual ballerinas either). Contrary to belief, lesbians don't fancy every woman they come across! 🙄🤦
And, furthermore, in classical ballet, women dance pas de deux with men not other women, so what's the issue? Why is it fine to be intimately handled by men, heterosexual or not, but being touched or lifted by a woman causes palpitations! Besides, 🩰 ballet teachers who are overwhelming female, have to touch you to help you position your body correctly. And I don't just mean your feet! One doesn't have a moral panic everytime they think it's necessary as part of the learning process! I haven't come across a ballet teacher, whether as a child or adult, who hasn't touched my upper or lower back, leg, arm, head or whatever else and physically adjusted my posture, or position to enable me to be more perfect. I consider it normal!
The same was true for me when learning any physical skill, eg other forms of dance, musical instruments, and sport. You can't teach a musical instrument or coach tennis, most of whom are male, without touching the player - it's an impossibility and would slow-up the learning process! Yet come to uni and they start having hysterionics 😱 if a lesbian just talks to a woman alone. That is totally abnormal!🤷🤬 And smells of ultra-conservatism which is inappropriate in an university setting! Or any setting, for that matter! Touching is part of social intercourse and it's about time we stop suddenly generating a weird anti-touch culture and creating sweeping, inappropriate policies that police social interaction between human beings and make gross assumptions about their individual intentions and power balances, whoever they are, whatever setting they find themselves in and whatever their perceived hierarchical status is. In short, grow up! 🙄
However, back to dance and lesbian visibility. Not all forms of dance are gender stereotypical, have gender conforming clothes and heteronormative storylines, except for classical ballet but that needs to change! We need a wider repertoire of classical ballet and not just recycled past ballets but new classical ballets. Choreographers are tending towards modern ballet and contemporary dance, with some pushing the boundaries on gender roles and storylines within these genres. But who's pushing the boundaries of gender and sexuality in classical ballet today? 🩰
I've tried my own miniscule contribution to this end, which you can see on my YouTube channel ballet shorts. 🩰 The first one is a more typically female dance role and female choreography although it possibly requires less gendered types of strength from the ballerina, such as repeatedly jumping directly on the wooden block ends of the pointe shoes.🩰 It's also without the usual ultra feminine arm movements and vulnerable-looking gestures. She is meant to express being a confident, strong woman. The second short video is part of the same ballet I've choreographed, but this time it is a male role with choreography that suits a male ballet dancer. But this male role is intended to be danced by a female. It is focused on showing that women can equally dance the male role, rather like in Shakespeare and Opera where women play male roles or cross-gender within the plot. And to show that women are just as physically capable of the same ballet moves and explosive jumps as men. After all, women are actually doing more physically demanding choreography because they are on pointe, unlike the men, who are in flats!
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