DANCE MUSIC: GENDER ISSUES AND EMBODIMENT OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Drawing on research of contemporary dance music this study analyzes how practices of, and discourse about, contemporary dance music contribute to the performance and embodiment of gender, and national identities. This article examines the articulation of gender and national identity in performance in the specific context of Russian contemporary male national dance. Dance in particular is a very interesting research setting for a subject as identity. Dance is located mostly outside of the daily life setting, therefore it enables another social framework with different social norms and rules than the ones applicable in daily life. Especially the identity axes of gender and national identity are provoked by national dances. To create insight and to understand the background and discourse of her research, the author presents the theoretical framework at first. Next her argument will be elucidated by the empirical chapters, which represent her findings in the field. At the end the author answers her research questions, as well as evaluating some existing theories on the topic, in her conclusion. The conclusion is that the bodies of dancers are cultural bodies and dance movements can be seen as scripts, which are culturally encoded and part of daily life. The body is the materialization of cultural definitions of femininity and masculinity, maleness and femaleness, and also materializes the dancer’s interpretation of them, as was stated by Aalten (1997). Namely, dancers create and recreate their gender and national identity inter-subjectively while dancing. Dance allow people to reclaim their humanity and is inscribed within the realm of feeling and emotion, The dancing body is a symbolic expression that may embody many notions of desire, hate, romance, anger, sexual climax. Dance, dance music and culture are intrinsically connected. Dancers and their dance practices reflect what exist in a society and culture, like how sexuality and gender are perceived