Ageing, gender and dancers’ bodies An interdisciplinary perspective Elisabeth Schwaiger Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia 2006 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My heartfelt thanks to my two supervisors; health sociologist Dr Toni Schofield at the University of Sydney, where I completed the first year of my thesis, for her unflagging support and enthusiasm, and dance scholar Dr Elizabeth Dempster at Victoria University of Technology, for her helpful and insightful advice during the remainder of the project. I am also deeply grateful to Dr Kathryn Trees, who took me under her wing when I relocated to Western Australia for family reasons, and who read drafts of my thesis and provided helpful advice and encouragement. A special thanks to Dr Mick Broderick, for his informal support and advice during my candidature, and for being my best friend and mentor. Without his ongoing encouragement and support this thesis might never have eventuated. Finally, I would like to warmly thank all the participants in this study who shared their lives and aspirations so generously, and regret only that I could never hope to do justice to the richness, depth and complexity of their lives in dance. Note that some of the material in this thesis has been published in modified form, including an article in Dance Research Journal (New York: Congress of Research on Dance, 2005), and a book chapter in Corporeal Inscriptions: Representations of the body in cultural and literary texts and practices (Torun, Poland: Nicolaus Copernicus University Press, 2005). ABSTRACT Drawing on research and frameworks from sociology, poststructuralist feminist theory, phenomenology, and social constructionism, this thesis offers—perhaps ambitiously—a much needed counter-discourse to the hegemonic cultural narratives of ageing as decline of body/self. It focuses on the experiences of ageing, and on the meaning of dancing, of practicing and retired theatrical dancers, a group who by virtue of their body-based profession face the impact of ageing earlier than most people in western cultures. This thesis critically examines the representation and experience of ageing of dancers in a western context, in which we are aged, gendered, and classed according to hegemonic—albeit historically variable—norms. I argue that dominant cultural discourses of ageing as decline-based and purportedly gender-neutral mask western consumer cultures’ understanding of ageing as gendered: that is, as allied with a loss of not only physical but also sexual capital. However, the ambiguity of the 'ageing body' in its efforts to reiterate these norms in performance disrupts and challenges this discourse's cultural construction of gendered body-subjects. The thesis therefore explores how cultural body norms are experienced, enacted and perpetuated, and what possibilities exist for bodily agency in subverting or transforming them. The findings in this study are based on transcribed life history interviews conducted with 30 dancers and former dancers between the ages of 27 and 76, with a background in a range of dance practices. Participants' narratives were grouped into recurrent themes using a grounded approach. It was found that, in contrast to cultural and institutional discourses that maintain that age-related factors such as waning stamina and endurance inevitably result in cessation from dancing, physical ageing per se had less effect on the desire to retire from performing than numerous other factors to do with economic and interest factors in midlife, including ‘outgrowing’ the authoritarian structure and politics of mainstream dance companies, time poverty due to family demands, or the absence of challenges or peer colleagues. The lack of broad-based support and cultural valorization of independent dance in Australia was also a factor influencing dancers’ decision to discontinue their practice. Participants' chosen dance practices were also related to two styles of the dancer’s body-self relation, one as a dualistic distinction between body and mind, the other as a more integrated form of embodiment. Embodiment is a third term that serves to deconstruct traditional western dualistic conceptions of body-subjects. I argue that a fundamental dualism underpinning theories such as the ‘mask of ageing’ in a postmodern consumer context is too limiting in understanding bodily ageing, and therefore, I draw on non-dualistic theoretical orientations through which to reframe the gendered body-self of the mature dancer. DECLARATION I, Elisabeth Schwaiger, declare that the PhD thesis entitled Ageing, Gender and Dancers’ Bodies: an Interdisciplinary Perspective is no more than 100,000 words in length exclusive of tables, figures, appendices, references and footnotes. This thesis contains no material that has been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for the award of any other academic degree or diploma. Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own work. Signature:______________________________ Date:_____________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Constructing ageing, gender and self ....................................................... 4 1.1 The social construction of biological ageing ............................................. 6 1.2 Ageism and social presence ...................................................................... 13 1.3 Postmodern perspectives on ageing in midlife: recyclable identities, discursive ageing .............................................................................................. 17 1.4 Psychoanalytic perspectives on ageing in midlife: persona and masquerade ....................................................................................................... 22 1.5 Gendered ageing ........................................................................................ 27 1.6 Theories of the embodied subject ............................................................. 37 1.7 The flesh, the fold and the intersubjective self ....................................... 47 Chapter 2: Gendered ageing and dance practices ..................................................... 55 2.1 The trouble with gender ............................................................................ 55 2.1.1 Seriality in gender and ageing..........................................................59 2.2 Ageing, class and the gendered habitus ...................................................63 2.2.1 Application to dance and body practices ......................................68 2.3 Gender and ageing in theatrical dance .....................................................74 2.3.1 Gender and ageing in sport .............................................................80 2.4 Ageing in social dance ............................................................................... 85 2.5 Body-subjects and dance practices ........................................................... 90 2.6 Institutional constraints and structural gender inequality ................... 95 2.7 Summary and rationale ............................................................................ 104 Chapter 3: Emergent themes ...................................................................................... 109 3.1 Methodology ..................... ........................................................................ 109 3.2 Overview of themes .................................................................................. 117 3.3 Themes ........................................................................................................ 117 3.3.1. Relation to transition ............................................................................ 117 3.3.1.1 Experiences of factors influencing retirement ........................... 123 3.3.1.2 Hitting your peak(s) ...................................................................... 129 3.3.2 Lifestyle and family ............................................................................... 132 3.3.2.1 Caring for children and dancing .................................................. 133 3.3.3 The cultural valorization of dance ....................................................... 141 3.3.4 Emotional self-expression ..................................................................... 146 3.3.5 Bodily passion and sublime moments ................................................ 151 3.3.5.1 Bodily reiteration and resistance to change ............................... 153 3.3.5.2 The embodied experience of sublimity ...................................... 155 3.3.6 Connection with dance, self and others .............................................. 157 3.3.6.1 From physical virtuosity to emotional-physical integration ... 161 3.3.7 Bodily conformity to dance codes ....................................................... 163 3.3.7.1 Gendered conformity to dance codes ......................................... 165 3.3.8 The dancer’s body-mind relationship ................................................. 171 3.3.9 Performing and stage presence in maturity ....................................... 176 3.3.10 Age and body management ............................................................... 182 3.3.11 Performing one’s age ........................................................................... 185 Chapter 4: Dancing between construction and experience ..................................