The Male Dancer

In this challenging and lively book Ramsey Burt examines the representation ofmasculinity in twentieth century dance. Taking issue with formalist andmodernist a... » 

In this challenging and lively book Ramsey Burt examines the representation ofmasculinity in twentieth century dance. Taking issue with formalist andmodernist accounts of dance which dismiss gender and sexuality as irrelevanthe argues that prejudices against male dancers are rooted in our ideas aboutthe male body and male behavior.Building upon ideas about the gendered gaze developed by film and feministtheorists Ramsey Burt provides a provocative theory of spectatorship dance. Heuses this to examine the work of choreorgraphers like Nijinksy Graham andBausch while relating their dances to the social political and artisticcontexts in which they were produced. Within these rereadings he identifies adistinction between institutionalized and modernist dance which evokes anessentialist heroic hypermasculinity one which is valorized with referenceto nature heterosexuality and religion and radical avantgarde choreographywhich challenges and disrupts dominant ways of representation of masculinity.The Male Dancer will be essential reading for anyone interested in dance andthe cultural construction of gender. «