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Friday, November 24, 2023
Searching for Dance History’s Queer Women? Start Here
Dance Magazine: It’s true: Lesbians in dance history have not been as visible as gay men. It hasn’t been as open a secret as with the male dancers you name. In our field, gay men are more prevalent and more accepted—it beats me which came first.
4 comments:
Karter LaBarre
said...
I love this article! It is incredibly important that we recognize queer women's visibility in our day-to-day lives, and things that we usually don't recognize them for. One of those things is dance and theater. gay men are often stereotyped to be involved in the Arts whereas queer women are often overlooked. As they said in the article it is not necessarily advantageous for people's career when they reveal their identity. However, in recent years that is changing, and I could not be more happy that it is. we need to start focusing on people's skill and ability rather than their identity, but we should not ignore. identity. What I mean by this is it should not be a factor of casting or anything like that, but it should be recognized as a part of them, and nothing negative should come from that. I'm very happy that there is an article on the history of dancing queer women, and the fact that it is published on a large site and that we are being shown it. very proud to be part of an accepting place like CMU, one that recognizes the need for embracing all types of artists.
I really did enjoy reading this article as well as learning more about this topic. I think that in history classes in general, minority groups and people who are very underrepresented are often left out of the conversation. This is so problematic because it takes away from the equally important contributions that these groups have made to the art form. It also does not allow for current members of these communities to honor and recognize who came before them and who had been the trailblazers and opened doors. I thought that an important part of Searching for Dance History’s Queer Women? Start Here was the fact that it acknowledged the intersectionality between gender and sexuality. Even though lesbian women and gay men are both part of the queer community, as women they were less accepted and had additional challenges to be respected in this field. We definitely need more articles like this to shed light on these artists.
Queer people, particularly queer women, and queer women of color, have historically been very overlooked in “high art,” and this article is a good jumping off point for people who want to know more about lesbians in dance history. One dance artist named Pat Catterson spent a lot of her life and career hiding her identity, because she felt like she had more of a liability if she came out as lesbian. I think that when making art, the full humanity of the creators should shine through the performance they are conducting, and that they should be allowed to be themselves regardless of the current social climate. I believe that normalizing the queer experience is one of the most powerful tools to fight queer oppression in society, and that by having these conversations, we are actively shaping the narrative surrounding what version of themselves people are allowed to live as.
I AM SO EXCITED THIS ARTICLE IS A THING. As a sapphic dancer and someone who wants to work in the dance industry, this article is so important. I can genuinely say I have never seen any research into queer women’s dance history and it is so so important. I recently did a project on Bill T. Jones an incredible choreographer and dancer who made large steps for the dance community in terms of gay male representation in the dance world it was so inspiring but it is so nice to see an article that focuses on queer women. I feel that women often come second in queer representation so it is wonderful to see finally some equity in terms of research. It is no surprise that the dance companies talked about were formed in 1970s San Francisco. I love seeing queer representation in dance, specifically because the art form is so gendered. This article made my day for sure.
4 comments:
I love this article! It is incredibly important that we recognize queer women's visibility in our day-to-day lives, and things that we usually don't recognize them for. One of those things is dance and theater. gay men are often stereotyped to be involved in the Arts whereas queer women are often overlooked. As they said in the article it is not necessarily advantageous for people's career when they reveal their identity. However, in recent years that is changing, and I could not be more happy that it is. we need to start focusing on people's skill and ability rather than their identity, but we should not ignore. identity. What I mean by this is it should not be a factor of casting or anything like that, but it should be recognized as a part of them, and nothing negative should come from that. I'm very happy that there is an article on the history of dancing queer women, and the fact that it is published on a large site and that we are being shown it. very proud to be part of an accepting place like CMU, one that recognizes the need for embracing all types of artists.
I really did enjoy reading this article as well as learning more about this topic. I think that in history classes in general, minority groups and people who are very underrepresented are often left out of the conversation. This is so problematic because it takes away from the equally important contributions that these groups have made to the art form. It also does not allow for current members of these communities to honor and recognize who came before them and who had been the trailblazers and opened doors. I thought that an important part of Searching for Dance History’s Queer Women? Start Here was the fact that it acknowledged the intersectionality between gender and sexuality. Even though lesbian women and gay men are both part of the queer community, as women they were less accepted and had additional challenges to be respected in this field. We definitely need more articles like this to shed light on these artists.
Queer people, particularly queer women, and queer women of color, have historically been very overlooked in “high art,” and this article is a good jumping off point for people who want to know more about lesbians in dance history. One dance artist named Pat Catterson spent a lot of her life and career hiding her identity, because she felt like she had more of a liability if she came out as lesbian. I think that when making art, the full humanity of the creators should shine through the performance they are conducting, and that they should be allowed to be themselves regardless of the current social climate. I believe that normalizing the queer experience is one of the most powerful tools to fight queer oppression in society, and that by having these conversations, we are actively shaping the narrative surrounding what version of themselves people are allowed to live as.
I AM SO EXCITED THIS ARTICLE IS A THING. As a sapphic dancer and someone who wants to work in the dance industry, this article is so important. I can genuinely say I have never seen any research into queer women’s dance history and it is so so important. I recently did a project on Bill T. Jones an incredible choreographer and dancer who made large steps for the dance community in terms of gay male representation in the dance world it was so inspiring but it is so nice to see an article that focuses on queer women. I feel that women often come second in queer representation so it is wonderful to see finally some equity in terms of research. It is no surprise that the dance companies talked about were formed in 1970s San Francisco. I love seeing queer representation in dance, specifically because the art form is so gendered. This article made my day for sure.
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