Women Dancing Otherwise: The Queer Feminism of Gu Jiani’s Right & Left

Authors

Emily E. Wilcox, William & MaryFollow

Files

Document Type

Book

Department/Program

Modern Languages & Literatures

Department

Theatre, Speech & Dance

Publication Date

2017

Book Title

Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Editor

Clare Croft

First Page

67

Last Page

82

DOI

doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199377329.001.0001

Abstract

In twenty-first-century urban Chinese contemporary dance, gender and female sexuality are often constructed in ways that reinforce patriarchal and heterosexual social norms. Although “queer dance” as a named category does not exist in China, it is possible to identify queer feminist perspectives in recent dance works. This essay offers a reading of representations of gender and female sexuality in two works of contemporary dance by Beijing-based female Chinese choreographers: Wang Mei’s 2002 Thunder and Rain and Gu Jiani’s 2014 Right & Left. Through choreographic analysis informed by ethnographic research in Beijing’s contemporary dance world, this essay argues that Thunder and Rain reinforces patriarchal and heterosexual social norms common in Chinese contemporary dance, while Right & Left disrupts such norms. Through its staging of unconventional female-female duets and its queering of nationally marked movement forms, Right & Left offers a queer feminist approach to the presentation of women on the Chinese stage.

ISBN

9780199377329

Recommended Citation

Wilcox, E. E. (2017). Women Dancing Otherwise: The Queer Feminism of Gu Jiani’s Right & Left. Clare Croft (Ed.), Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings (pp. 67-82). Oxford University Press. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/117