University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2001 Aesthetics, athletics and art: a study of men who dance Michael Gard University of Wollongong Recommended Citation Gard, Michael, Aesthetics, athletics and art: a study of men who dance, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, 2001. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1767 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Aesthetics, Athletics and Art: A Study of Men Who Dance by MICHAEL GARD, BPE, MSpSc A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Education University of Wollongong November 2001 CERTIFICATION I, Michael Gard, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of Education, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Michael Gard 29 November 2001 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 2 CHAPTER ONE: A STORY 4 LOCATING DANCE 5 A QUESTION 9 The specificity of dance 10 CLARIFYING THE RESEARCH QUESTION 12 Defining 'theatricaldance'. 14 CONNECTING RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH METHOD 15 LOCATING THE RESEARCHER 17 CHAPTER TWO: PLEASURE, POWER AND IDENTITY 19 THEORY AND EMonoN 20 THEORISING THE TENSION 22 FEMINIST POSTSTRUCTURALISM 24 DISCOURSE AND POWER 26 THE IIVED/RELATIONAL BODY 32 BURKITT'S BODIES OF THOUGHT 35 POWER AND BODILY INVESTMENTS 38 GENDER AND SEX 42 TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF GENDER AND GENDER IDENTITY 43 SEXUALITY AND SEXUAL PREFERENCE 46 MALE BODIES AND GENDER RELATIONS 47 CHAPTER THREE: TAKING ACCOUNT OF GENDER 53 'BAD'AND'USUAL'SCIENCE 54 SEARCHING FOR A QUESTION 56 A CONVERSATION 58 BODIES, TALK AND STORIES 63 DATA COLLECTION 64 Recruiting participants 65 Arranging interviews. 66 Embodying the researcher 68 Men's talk 70 The interviews. 73 Transcribing 75 ANALYSIS AND REPRESENTATION 76 Voice? go CONCLUSION 81 CHAPTER FOUR: PRODUCING THE MALE DANCER 83 PRODUCING A READING 83 A READING 85 The assumption of homosexuality 85 Normalising males. 87 The importance of success 88 OTHER STORIES 89 Which literature?. 90 MEN AND WESTERN THEATRICAL DANCE 91 'Strength', 'skill'and 'standards'. 92 The 'victim' of l&manticism 9) The assumption of homosexuality 97 Diaghilev, Nijinsky and the Ballet Russes. 99 Women, modernism and men 103 The 'fight back' 110 Managing the gay dancer. 116 CONCLUSION 123 CHAPTER FIVE: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SWAN 128 A LIFE TN BRIEF 129 Beginnings 131 Born for the stage 132 London calling. 139 Leaving/coming home 140 Moving on 143 RESOURCING HELPMANN - AN ANALYSIS 144 A particular kind of dancer 148 The 'passionate artist' 155 CONCLUSION 159 CHAPTER SIX: BEING A 'ME' DANCER 162 LEARNED, NOT TAUGHT 162 SOMETHING TO FEEL 167 DANGEROUS DANCE 172 CONCLUSION 183 CHAPTER SEVEN: A BALLET BOY 185 AN 'AUTHENTIC' CHOICE 185 THE'FEEL'OF CONTROL 190 BRINGING SEX INTO IT 195 CONCLUSION 200 CHAPTER EIGHT: A 'CONTEMPORARY' DANCER? 202 A 'LOVE/HATE' RELATIONSHIP 202 FEELING IN CONTROL 209 TAKING SEX OUT OF IT 212 CONCLUSION 216 CHAPTER NINE: THE AESTHETIC AND THE SELF 219 LOSING AND FINDING ONE'S SELF 220 A'PASSION'FOR DANCE 229 A CERTAIN'PHYSICALM" 237 WHAT'S SEX GOT TO DO WITH IT? 247 CONCLUSION 251 CHAPTER TEN: PLEASURE, SUBJECTIVITY AND THE 'EVERYDAY' 254 SOME LOOSE THEORETICAL ENDS 261 A FINAL WORD ABOUT'MASCULINITY' 263 REFERENCES 267 APPENDIX A: INTRODUCTORY LETTER 279 APPENDDIB: SAMPLE QUESTIONS 280 APPENDLXC: LETTER TO DANCE COMPANIES 281 NOTES 282 Abstract Aesthetics, athletics and art: a study of men who dance In this thesis I present the findings of an interview-based, qualitative study of male theatrical dancers. Specifically, my central research question asked: what resources are mobilised in constructing the subjectivities of male theatrical dancers? The primary means for addressing this question was a series of interviews with Australian men who are or have been employed as professional ballet or contemporary dancers. By way of background to these data, I considered the different ways in which male theatrical dancers have been discursively produced over the last 300 years or so in both scholarly and popular literature. In addition, 1 present a case study of Robert Helpmann, Australia's first international ballet star. By examining recorded interviews with Helpmann and the considerable newspaper, magazine and biographical literature which accompanied his life, I argue that existing discursive 'explanations' of the male dancer scarcely begin to reflect the complex interplay of aesthetics, gender and sexuality which seem to have constituted Helpmann the man and Helpmann the artist. This complexity is also a distinguishing feature of the analysis of the interview data that I present. In particular, I suggest that while there is clearly no male dancer 'type', the ways in which male dancers constitute themselves and the reasons they give for being dancers can be understood as part of what Foucault called the 'art of the self. That is, their subjectivities are constellations of particular discursive resources and bodily memories which come together to form context specific personal styles. However, these styles are not simply a matter of 'taste'; they reflect the dividends of social power which accrue to particular kinds of men within Australian society, as well as, in some cases, indicating sites of resistance towards dominant notions of masculinity. 1 Acknowledgments The work towards this thesis was generously supported by a Charles Sturt University Faculty of Education seed grant. Parts of Chapters One and Four of this thesis appeared in Gard (2001), 'Dancing around the 'problem' of boys and dance', an article published in the journal Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, volume 22, number 2. This work would also not have been possible without the support, friendship and love of a number of people. I am deeply grateful to the men who took part in this research, all of whom were generous with their time and encouragement for what I was doing. Meeting and talking to them was one of the many highlights of doing this work. I am also grateful to the people who helped facilitate the project, particularly Jeff Meiners, Julie Dyson and Mark Gordon, who, more than anyone, got me started. Although I cannot name them, a number of people connected with two Australian dance companies were also enormously helpful and, in a number of ways, made this work much easier to complete. My colleagues and friends in the Human Movement Studies Unit and Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst have been a constant source of ideas and encouragement. In particular, I want to thank Joan Fry, Carol Woodruff and Mark McFadden for their patience and guidance during my initiation into academic life. Frank and Trish Marino's sound advice, friendship, hospitality and superb coffee has sustained me through many long and hectic semesters. I have also greatly benefited from my work with CSU's Centre for Cultural Research into Risk and from my professional and personal associations with Sharon Pickering, Will Letts IV(!), Jane Selby, Ben Bradley, Katrina Schlunke, Julie Marcus, Elizabeth Wulff, Rachel Hutchesson and Michael Howes. In terms of whatever progress I have made in academic life, words cannot do justice to the contribution of my first Head of School, the one and only Judith Parker. As all those who come into contact with her know, one is never the same afterwards. I have also had the good fortune of working for and with Bob Meyenn, the Dean of my faculty, who has been a wonderful mentor, a dear friend and a rich supply of gossip. Both Bob and Judith, above all others, are responsible for infecting me with an interest in research and for creating the intellectual and temporal space for me to pursue my 2 interests, despite what Judith often described as the 'straightened times' within which universities currently operate. I am indebted to Loughborough University's Department of Physical Education, Sports Science and Recreation Management which gave me an office and a computer to work on this thesis during my period of study leave in England and Scotland in 2000. In particular, I am grateful to Mark Falcous (and the Leicester 'Riders'), John Evans, Dawn Penney and the Kirk and McPhail families for helping to make this a productive and happy time. While in the UK, I also spent time talking with Jane Pritchard, archivist with the Rambert Dance Company, Ramsay Burt and Joyce Sherlock, each of whom made important contributions to this work Jan Wright has been a model supervisor; generous in her praise, thoughtful and forthright in her criticisms, speedy with drafts, always ready to listen and exchange ideas, a warm and valued friend and colleague. While the ultimate responsibility for this work is my own, every stage in its production was facilitated by her patience and her calm and insightful words. I also want to mention my friend, David Armstrong, with whom I began tertiary study. Although our lives have taken different paths since then, his intelligence, humour, humility, sense of adventure and clear-eyed view of the world continue (though, sadly, not nearly as much as I would like) to shape who I am and how I think My hope is that our paths will cross more frequently in the future. Thanks also to other friends, Andrew Harvey, Tim Thornley, Karen Thompson and Gia Franchi, who listened and talked about this project with me; you are all in there somewhere.