Abstract
Although non-binary gender roles have become largely acceptable in the arts as a reflection of broader cultural tolerance, artists often must weigh the interaction of politics and poetics in the actual embodiment of such roles on stage or screen. My work for both stage and screen, “Love Thy Enemy”, proposes a “what if?” scenario of two men on opposite sides of a militarized border expressing both visually and viscerally a transformation from fear and animosity to intimacy and love. Crafting the choreographic scenario and working with two “straight” men demanded a carefully plotted sequence of still and movement images unfolding over 12’ and drawing the viewer into a bond of kinesthetic empathy in which they were attracted to the highly visual esthetics of the dancers and the shapes they made (including interaction with props, costumes and musical score) while also remaining open to the possibility of a very visceral embodiment of same-sex intimacy. How does body language as a code of male conduct become a set of images to be subverted or reimagined? How are iconic “rituals” of territoriality and dominion dismantled when the mutual attraction of courtship erodes animosity to “the other”? How does this play out on stage with live audience differently than as a screening of a meticulously filmed and edited work for video, either in a film theater or on a laptop or cell phone? As image-maker, my ideas formulate and shift with multiple performances and screenings since the work’s completion in March, 2024.
Presenters
Peter SparlingRudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, School of Music, Theater, and Dance, University of Michigan, Michigan, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Men Dancing, Non-Binary Gender Roles, Kinesthetic Empathy, Visceral Image
