AILY ROJAN DMONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2020 | STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THET UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SINCE 1912 | VOL. 201, NO. 11 COVID-19 AT USC — T Over the wee of ept , te test positivity rate for exposed/symptomatic testing was 18% and for surveillance population testing was 0.9% among students. CURRENT TESTING NUMBERS EXPOSED/ SYMPTOMATIC TESTING SURVEILLANCE POPULATION TESTING STUDENTS STUDENTS EMPLOYEES EMPLOYEES NEGATIVE: 110 NEGATIVE: 13 NEGATIVE: 2,412 NEGATIVE: 366 POSITIVE: 18 POSITIVE: 0 POSITIVE: 10 POSITIVE: 0 Design by Samantha deNicola and Claire Wong | Daily Trojan Zackery Torres pushes for gender-inclusive space in dance community Torres aims to provide practical resources to improve gender inclusivity. By MIRANDA HACK Staff Writer For Zackery Torres, sitting down and shutting up was never really an option. It probably would have been easier to, Torres admits. To stay in the corner after being misgen- dered at rehearsal again, to stop correcting friends for using the wrong pronouns, to censor them- self as they worried about what other people would think. Torres, a senior in the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, came out as gender nonbinary dur- ing their sophomore year at USC. Doing so came with a feeling of freedom but also with its own set of challenges. Now, Torres is creat- ing space for others in the dance industry who don’t identify within Photo courtesy of Benjamin Peralta society’s strict gender binary. Zackery Torres, a Glorya Kaufman School of Dance senior, looks to advocate for gender equity through Armed with a pile of frustrated their book “An Evolving Conversation on Gender: Dance Edition” and company Continuum Community. voice memos and a conglomerate of thoughts hastily typed out dur- emphasized the need to be strong, — but this, too, left them with unapologetically themself, us- ing breaks in rehearsals, Torres muscular and traditionally mas- the feeling that they weren’t em- ing Torres’ deserved pronouns al- began to compile their experience culine. This is just one of the ways bracing their full self. It wasn’t lowed them to embrace newer fac- as a nonbinary dancer. In August, that the gender binary is perpet- until they came to USC, and real- ets of themself — things like their Torres published “An Evolving uated in the dance industry, ac- ized they were nonbinary, that this style and a newfound confidence Conversation on Gender: Dance cording to Torres. feeling subsided. in advocating for gender equity. Edition,” a guidebook to gender “I started seeing all of the “Those conversations just “I feel like for so long, [Torres] inclusivity for anyone in the dance expectations that teachers — well- weren’t prominent enough in my was like ‘I don’t want to be the per- community. And in July, Torres known dance teachers, and well- local communities and in my cir- son in the room that people are an- started Continuum Community, known choreographers — had for cles, so I didn’t really have the re- noyed by,” Upsahl said. “But final- a company which aims to provide me as a male dancer growing up sources,” they said. “I just kind of ly, they were like ‘Fuck that, that’s practical and easy-to-implement and at the time identifying as a shoved it down because I didn’t what I was put on this earth to do resources for gender inclusivity. boy,” Torres said. “‘Oh, you’re too like the feeling of the unknown.” — to advocate for equality.’ It’s Torres’ journey with under- feminine, you need to dance like a For Torres, changing their just been so insanely inspiring to standing gender identity began man.’ Just having teachers tell you pronouns was like putting the see.” at age 13, when they spent two that on national television, all this last piece of a puzzle into place. Now, Torres is advocating for formative years as a cast mem- stuff, it kind of really got to me.” Torres’ childhood friend Taylor gender equity on an even larger ber on the Lifetime shows “Abby’s Growing up, Torres was eager to Upsahl said the shift was no- scale. Their book, “An Evolving Ultimate Dance Competition” put themself in a box, to pick a la- ticeable from the outside, too. Conversation on Gender: Dance and, shortly after, “Dance Moms.” bel and stick with it. While Torres Upsahl has known Torres since Edition,” is the result of years Being in the public eye meant knew that they were attracted to they were 10, having attended the spent in an industry that is cen- scrutiny from strangers about men, being labeled gay “didn’t same performing arts school in tered around — and continues to Torres’ gender identity and sexu- feel quite right.” Torres wondered, Phoenix, Ariz. Though, according ality, as well as instructors who briefly, if they were transgender to Upsahl, Torres has always been | see TORRES, page 2 | INDEX 2 · News 3 · Opinion 4 · A & E 6 · Classifieds 2 · Sudoku 8 · Sports DAILYTROJAN.COM DAILYTROJAN PAGE 2 OCTOBER 5, 2020 | WWW.DAILYTROJAN.COM NEWS TORRES | Student challenges gender norms within the dance industry | continued from page 1 | silently enforce — the gender bi- nary, all while publicly advertising inclusivity. Torres is aiming for a restructuring of the dance com- munity on a day-to-day level, from costuming to rehearsals to the way classes are split up. Rehearsals, Torres said, often operate on the assumption that playing a character means having matching gender identities, sex- ualities or pronouns. Torres isn’t pushing for a change in the can- on of traditional roles or chore- ography but for the use of modi- fied language, so that instructors aren’t forcing the identities of fic- tional characters onto dancers. “Everyone always talks about how inclusive the arts communi- ties are,” Torres said. “But I’m just not really feeling it. I’m not seeing it on an everyday scale.” Torres’s own work toward re- jecting the gender binary in dance started a year and a half ago, when they started advocating for fur- ther gender inclusivity within Kaufman. Torres acted as a sort of liaison between professors and students in discussions centered around the role gender plays in dance, especially the way rehears- als and classes are run. Kaufman professor Bruce McCormick, who met Torres during their sopho- more year, was one of these pro- fessors. Calling Torres a “generous thought partner,” McCormick be- lieves that Torres’s advocacy has Photo courtesy of Zackery Torres Zackery Torres, who came out as non-binary two years ago, is taking strides to restructrure the day-to-day experiences within the dance community to been central to creating a more in- be more inclusive of all genders and hopes to eliminate the binary constraints within USC classes, such as de-gendering ballet courses offered at Kaufman. clusive environment at Kaufman. “[Torres] embracing their gen- de-gendering ballet classes. But then change stopped happening.” planning process, USC Kaufman that Kaufman has been responsive der identity has been beautiful to when the Kaufman schedule was Since then, forward progress established affirmations — valued to their push for inclusivity, be- witness,” McCormick said. “They published for Fall 2019, ballet has been made. Ballet classes are commitments which guide our de- lieving that the school and its fac- have allowed themself to be vul- classes were still divided into men now split based on the footwork cisions. Belonging, the embrace of ulty want to grow and develop. But nerable, with faculty and fellow and women. Torres began writ- and steps dancers are working individuality, inclusion and equity, Torres isn’t planning on slowing students, in order to push this con- ing “An Evolving Conversation on on, rather than into binary gen- was one of them,” Kopcsak wrote. down anytime soon. versation forward and educate ev- Gender” shortly after. ders. In a statement to the Daily “Categorizing ballet class by dance eryone around them.” “That’s when I started really Trojan, Kaufman’s Assistant Dean skill rather than gender was a deci- “I want to stay on the edge of my It seemed to Torres that their putting my foot down, really hit- of Faculty Jackie Kopcsak em- sion that spoke to this value, and seat, I want to keep challenging push for inclusivity had enough ting the gas pedal and driving phasized the school’s support for we commend Zack for advocating myself,” Torres said. “I don’t ever forward momentum to make tan- right through all of it,” Torres said. Torres’s advocacy. for this important change.” want to sit and be comfortable.” gible change, including a goal of “We kind of got comfortable and “As part of our strategic Ultimately, Torres is grateful Now Leasing! Advertise Here! Small space. Big Visibility. 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