Quare Dance: Fashioning a Black, Queer, Fem(me)inist Aesthetic in Ballet

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2021

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Repository Usage Stats

153
views
300
downloads

Abstract

What can an intersectional lens that considers race, gender, and sexuality offer ballet in the 21st century? Historically, Black and Queer stories have been relegated to the margins of ballet history in service of Eurocentric, heteronormative ideals. This creative and written project investigates the ways Black Queer Ballerinas disrupt dominant discourses on dance and identity by moving against, through, and around oppressive structures. The purpose of this exploration is two-fold: 1) to examine the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and ballet, with a particular focus on the stories of Black Queer Women and Femmes, and 2) to collaborate with the aforementioned artists on a performance installation that explores the embodiment of a Black Queer Fem(me)inist aesthetic through movement and material artifacts.Grounded in the present moment and framed by a close reading of Black and Queer presence in the archive, Quare Dance documents how Kiara Felder, Audrey Malek, Cortney Taylor Key, and Alyah Baker imagine and enact new possibilities for ballet’s future—possibilities that have both aesthetic and pedagogical implications. Employing an interdisciplinary lens and mixed methods approach that centers dance and material culture, this project situates these performances of Black Queer Fem(me)inity in relationship to Black feminist studies, Queer theory, dance studies, and performance theory. I argue that Black Queer Ballerinas trouble dominant discourses embodying an important, yet previously overlooked counter-narrative for what ballet and the ballerina is and can be.

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Citation

Baker, Alyah Jenika (2021). Quare Dance: Fashioning a Black, Queer, Fem(me)inist Aesthetic in Ballet. Master's thesis, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/23209.

Collections


Except where otherwise noted, student scholarship that was shared on DukeSpace after 2009 is made available to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution / Non-commercial / No derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license. All rights in student work shared on DukeSpace before 2009 remain with the author and/or their designee, whose permission may be required for reuse.