This chapter explor the tensn at the tersectn of classil ballet and gay cultur. Central to the study is a crique of ballet’s exclnary heterocentrism—“the ballet closet”—exemplified by the image of the classil ballet...
Contents:
- PK FEATHERS THE BALLET CLOSET: THREE GAY REMAK OF SWAN LAKE
- SWAN LAKE REVIEW – DADA MASILO FFL FEATHERS WH GAY REMAKE
- NOT THE GAY SWAN LAKE
- DANCE; 'SWAN LAKE': IS IT THEATER OR DANCE, GAY OR STRAIGHT?
- MATTHEW BOURNE: ‘I WON’T TAKE MY GAY SWAN LAKE TO RSIA NOW — THEY HAVE GONE BACKWARDS’
PK FEATHERS THE BALLET CLOSET: THREE GAY REMAK OF SWAN LAKE
* gay version of swan lake *
It was not an openly homophobic environment, but s nservatism and heterocentrism, rooted an orientatn to the past, prented extra plexi to navigate for a young gay man g to terms wh his sexualy.
My experience wh this environment felt ntrast to the seismic soc-polil shifts I was wnsg through my engagement wh gay male subcultural art, polics and social spac.
SWAN LAKE REVIEW – DADA MASILO FFL FEATHERS WH GAY REMAKE
Back at the Ahmanson, the transformatn of Tchaikovsky's ballet to a gay romance still electrifi wh heartfelt drama and spectacular dancg. * gay version of swan lake *
Cght between the two ntexts, I felt at once stuck the past, while also propelled forward by a wave of progrsive chapter trac my journey through the tensns, navigatg a relatnship to masculi and sir through a queer readg of ballet culture proposed by three key choreographic works that rpond to the polemics of gay sire ballet. I argue that the works were created rponse to ballet’s excln of gay men; the way each work addrs gayns, masculy, and shame reflect some of the soc-polil and cultural tensns of this particular moment Gay Swan LakThe aforementned works are three “gay remak” of the classil ballet Swan Lake.
NOT THE GAY SWAN LAKE
I have labelled them lightly as “gay remak” based on two creria: one, bee the choreographer of each of the works intifi himself as gay; and two, the central romantic uple—the Prce and the Swan—is performed by two men. I argue the versns of the classil ballet were created at a time of shiftg gay polics, both wh and outsi the world of ballet, and they perform the polemics of this moment, each different ways.
DANCE; 'SWAN LAKE': IS IT THEATER OR DANCE, GAY OR STRAIGHT?
I have stctured my analysis of the works, not only the orr I enuntered them, but also the way they reflect my own journey of navigatg the plexi of the gay male body ballet.
MATTHEW BOURNE: ‘I WON’T TAKE MY GAY SWAN LAKE TO RSIA NOW — THEY HAVE GONE BACKWARDS’
While this remake proposed a way to challenge the visibily of gay men the ballet non, worked wh and perpetuated the systemic procs that produce ballet’s homophobias. ed “the universal” to disguise s gay shame, rooted the panic of the threat of the feme to the gay male inty that rerced many of the tensns I was navigatg between masculy and ntrast, I enuntered Javier Ftos’s Hypochondriac.
In Ftos’s duet, he loted gayns a personal space, undog the narrative and nonil imperativ of the source ballet to pose a playful, excsive and timate ntemplatn of gay sire.