Consenting to the Dance
Ladies and Gentlemen, the anticipated heat of the evening is before us. Please give a roaring round of applause for your Latin Amateur Championship Finalists. Couples you may now take your place on the dance floor.
In the glittering ballroom, we confront a cacophony of sounds, colours, smells, and emotions. Thousands of Swarovski crystals, glued upon the costumes of competitors, reflect the bright lights. From the corner of the room, one by one, the competitors emerge - each couple holding a moment in the spotlight. With a confident strut, the male walks onto the floor first, after a few steps he turns around to present an inviting hand to his counterpart. With that cue, the female graciously takes her partner’s hand as she is swept into a flurry of spins. An extravagant bow completes the couple’s entrance. The judges – dressed in bourgeois attire, a tablet in hand, ready to decide who will be victorious – evenly space themselves along the perimeter of the competitive arena. Before the dance round has even begun, pre-imposed power relations are clear and present: judges hold a position of power, and the male partner imposes dominion over his female follower. To secure a spot on the podium, competitors must exhibit excellence in technical skill, rhythmical accuracy, choreography, and floor craft, all while channeling the essence of each dance. Underneath the glamour and romanticized Western ideals, the DanceSport institution is rooted in cultural appropriation, uneven power dynamics, and performative gender norms that propagate a culture of sexual inequality and cultural assimilation. In this paper, I discuss the five Latin DanceSport events, questioning the colonial ideals imposed on the form’s development. Furthermore, I explore how heteronormative gender roles, embedded in competitive training, objectify the body and glorify sexual misconduct.
The competitive training of Latin DanceSport is heavily influenced by Western ideals. A change towards the acceptance of non-binary notions of gender and race are necessary for the development of the form. Value must be reallocated from heteronormative sexualization to holistic body practices where tanning the skin, dancing on high-heels, and commodifying the body is no longer a necessity. Learning about the history, embodying the cultural roots and questioning the pre-determined pillars of the technique should be focal points in training. This will create space to understand cultural values, allow for improvisation and respect individual choices. As the discourse is heavily influenced by configurations of power, all levels must strive for inclusivity. By stripping away the layers of glamour, one begins to appreciate how two moving bodies, authentic in their own skin and expression, can communicate through movement, consensually.
Works Cited
McMains, Juliet E. Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 2006.
Meneau, Valentin. “Coding sexual violence as love – choreographed heteronormative gender performances in Latin American competitive dancing.” Journal of Gender Studies (2020): 1-19.
Yamanashi Leib, Allison, and Robert C. Bulman. “The Choreography of Gender: Masculinity, Femininity, and the Complex Dance of Identity in the Ballroom.” Men and Masculinities 11, no. 5 (2009): 602 - 621.
