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Originally Posted by Aniseteph
I'm with Tarik on this one. I find it really distracting not to know. For me as an audience member it's totally the wrong way to go if a dancer is trying to convey messages "beyond" the male/female thing. Does that make sense? When someone goes for truly androgynous I'm wondering a) is that a man or a woman (draws the attention like an impending costume disaster), and b) why does he/she dress that way? To make me go  , to make some sort of point about his/her sexuality (that I'm not interested in)? |
Maybe s/he dresses that way simply to be beautiful? Why would it necessarily be a "point about his/her sexuality"? For that matter, why are people so hung up on other people's sexuality (and gender)? I honestly don't understand, I seldom pay attention...
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I don't know... What it absolutely doesn't succeed in doing (for me) is to write the male/female out of the equation and let the art be experienced as just human. On the contrary, it just accentuates it, like the elephant in the room that no one mentions.
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It goes without saying that this is what I'm striving for - and what I like to see.
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I've seen men dancing very masculine and very feminine styles, and like both, as long as it's good dancing. Conveying a feeling is what it's all about IMHO and neither men nor women have a monopoly on particular feelings.
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Thank you for saying this - although I (MY OPINION) don't believe in "masculine" or "feminine" styles - only in "Belly Dance" which is very beautiful, graceful, and spiritual. As I say on my WebSite somewhere: "There's no such thing as 'Tall' vs 'Short' style, or 'Skinny' vs 'Fat' style although these types of dancers do tend to dance slightly differently from each other. Why all this emphasis on 'Masculine' vs. 'Feminine' style. I just don't buy it."
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Having said that, some audiences are going to have problems with the feelings some dancers want to convey... I'd have thought it was part of a professional's job to gauge the audience/venue and choose something appropriate.
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Yes to the first, qualified yes to the second. "Appropriate" is a very mis-used and over-used word.
See my reply to Tarik, coming up next!
