“It would be so nice if something made sense for a change”. {Alice}

Are gendered dance classes archaic?

The point is, dance does not have a gender, so why do we force it to have one?

The fact is, gender is a construct, so why force it on our students?

All genres are made up movements that all human beings are capable of. Dance itself is a great ally in the LGBTQ+ community.

Dance genres that are taught in a completely mixed setting, are: Jazz (look at Judy Garland and Fred Astaire); Modern (The Graham Dance Company) , all Hip hop crews, and Tap (look at Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds) and Contemporary Companies. The movements are exactly the same, only nuanced by the individual.

The only genre that will prove tricky to challenge for many reasons, is ballet. I remember teaching ballet mime…I had to show the male identifying students how to stand. Legs close together, arms firmly by their side or behind their back. It was unbelievable how restrictive it felt! I felt sad, minimized and repressed. When I switched to the female identifying students, I felt open, free, expressive. Big dramatic movements, arms opening and gesturing wildly.

The reason for this stereo typical way of miming, was in reference to the 18th Century, when ballet was invented. Why and how are we still conforming to this?

Must we refer to original ballet productions as museum pieces. Danced in the way that geneders were divided back then? Some ‘male’ steps are literally too dangerous and high impact for most cis females. There are exceptions to this though. Should we begin to take it as an individual by individual basis?

I will no longer divide mime into gendered movements for example. Or, I will allow the children to choose which gender role they encompass. I will experiment with them.

I worry that if it our attitudes to genders in the dance industry don’t change, we will lose a new generation of audiences and ballet, in particular, will fizzle out with the patriarchy. (Besides the fact that the original choreographers are famously noted for being misogynistic tyrants. Treating women like sculpting clay, without any idea of consent or autonomy for the dancer. More on that on another day).

This is a tricky subject, what are your thoughts?

Photo credit- Dan Brown