Swan Lake review – Dada Masilo ffl feathers wh gay remake | Swan Lake | The Guardian

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

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. 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.

SWAN LAKE REVIEW – DADA MASILO FFL FEATHERS WH GAY REMAKE

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.

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. 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.

NOT THE GAY SWAN LAKE

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.

” 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.

The field of queer studi, which emerged promently out of gay and lbian studi the 1980s, offers pertent strategi for addrsg this, particularly through persistent qutng of monolhic unrstandgs of inty and reprentatn. Whereas male-centric gay culture often prriz an vtment particular inty tegori as a necsary move for the advancement of certa rights and privileg, queer culture rists inty formatns through ambiguy, slippers, and refal. I am drawg on this fn my analysis, and like Cvetkovich (2003), who both queer and lbian tanm, I am g queer and gay “ orr to rist any prumptn that they are mutually exclive” (p.

DANCE; 'SWAN LAKE': IS IT THEATER OR DANCE, GAY OR STRAIGHT?

Takg her cue, I employ a queer lens that stabiliz gayns through a spicn of inty tegori, but do not reject those aspects of gay male cultural productn that open up plurali their approach to addrsg homophobia and shame.

The gay man appears as a figure lurkg the shadows of ballet culture, behd the mask of particular characters, or offstage narrativ, played out the wgs of the heterosexual story beg performed onstage. The gay man—or any queer person, for that matter—is seldom asked to take center stage this world, which is heavily populated by gay and queer people. Claid (2021) suggts that the ballet world “provis safety om gay opprsn, yet pends on that opprsn to perpetuate s artistic exprsn” (p.

She argu that “[b]allet’s gay herage is kept behd closet doors and mt rema there bee the queer shame of ballet is also partly rponsible for s artistic s and narrative fantasi” (Claid, 2021, pp. The relatnship that Claid (2021) lls “the ballet closet” is prerved through ballet’s regulatn of bodi and genr, as well as s nonil orientatn toward heterosexual stctural homophobias of the ballet closet mirror wir stctur of homophobia that exist outsi the art form. This relatnal stcture is what I am llg the heterosexual of the pas ux, and is central to unrstandg the excln of gay men Men and The Pas DxThe pas ux is the most important moment classil ballet performanc, which the Prce and Prcs of the ballet narrative are brought together to monstrate their love through virtuosic partnered movement.

MATTHEW BOURNE: ‘I WON’T TAKE MY GAY SWAN LAKE TO RSIA NOW — THEY HAVE GONE BACKWARDS’

Bee of this necsary reaffirmatn of the heterosexual assumptn as a requirement to uphold the lite and narrow fantasy of male ballet dancers as mascule, gay bodi pose a threat to the reful balance of ballet’s heterogenr bary, threateng to expose for the illn that is. The prence of the gay ballet dancer suggts that the pas ux is not as heterosexual as purports, that might actually be as gay as we spected was all along. dancers fulfill the stereotyp ballet culture has worked so hard to dispt through the “makg macho” strategy; by “g out, ” the gay male dancer betrays this agile public relatns image.