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.
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.
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 *
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. 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.
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.
NOT THE GAY SWAN LAKE
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. De Ftos, as a gay immigrant, and Hoghe, as an atypil body, exposed and ed their tersectnal otherns as the very materials of the performance.
DANCE; 'SWAN LAKE': IS IT THEATER OR DANCE, GAY OR STRAIGHT?
In their reworkg of Swan Lake, the nvenient, ambiguo, and clanste gay body was placed center stage, along wh s attendant sir, pleasur, timaci, and shame, renstctg a queer world that ss ristively parallel to the exclnary, heteronormative, classil ballet Cultur and Queer PolicsThis study is suated between 1995 and 2005, and at the junctn of two distct but teractive cultural practic: classil ballet and ntemporary gay cultur.
Around this time, I wnsed gay men and women Europe and North Ameri gag new rights, eedoms, and legal protectns—such as marriage equaly, antidiscrimatn protectn, and hate crime laws—as well as creased reprentatn mastream cultural productn, more wily. Chong-Sun Han (2007, 2008) has noted that this kd of hostily is ptured the phrase “no fats, no fems, no Asians, ” which is an oft-ed phrase on the gay male onle datg apps that beme ubiquo durg this urse, the exclnary impuls of gay male cultur are not always as explic or liberate as this, but rather a by-product of treatg “gay” as a bound and plete inty for the sake of polil expediency to addrs homophobia and gay shame.
MATTHEW BOURNE: ‘I WON’T TAKE MY GAY SWAN LAKE TO RSIA NOW — THEY HAVE GONE BACKWARDS’
” A cursory look over some of the gay mastream cultural productn durg this time reveals a remarkably limed reprentatn of gay experience that is mostly whe and male. has been addrsed, mostly by and for gay whe men, ignorg or omtg other possible, tersectnal sourc of as I am cril of the inty polics that grip much of ntemporary gay cultur, I do not want to dismiss “gay” as a polil ad end.