When Men Dance ─ Choreographing Masculinities Across Borders

While dance has always been as demanding as contact sports, intuitive boundaries distinguish the two forms of performance for men. Dance is often regarded as a feminine activity, and men who dance are frequently stereotyped as suspect, gay, or somehow unnatural. But what really happens when men dance?

When Men Dance offers a progressive vision that boldly articulates double-standards in gender construction within dance and brings hidden histories to light in a globalized debate. A first of its kind, this trenchant look at the stereotypes and realities of male dancing brings together contributions from leading and rising scholars of dance from around the world to explore what happens when men dance. The dancing male body emerges in its many contexts, from the ballet, modern, and popular dance worlds to stages in Georgian and Victorian England, Weimar Germany, India and the Middle East. The men who dance and those who analyze them tell stories that will be both familiar and surprising for insiders and outsiders alike.

Jennifer Fisher is Associate Professor of Dance, University of California - Irvine, and author of Nutcracker Nation: How an Old World Ballet Became a Christmas Tradition in the New World (2003).

Anthony Shay is Assistant Professor of Dance and Cultural Studies at Pomona College and author or editor of several books, including Choreographic Politics: State Folk Dance Ensembles, Representation, and Power (2003).