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Uniamo le forze e danziamo oltre i limiti!

Hai delle domande, delle idee o vuoi semplicemente farci un saluto? Contatta Val e Giulia: ci fa piacere ascoltarti! E continua a danzare verso l'inclusione!

Chi siamo

Queering DanceSport è un'iniziativa finanziata dall'Austrian Science Fund (FWF) che ha lo scopo di mettere in discussione il binomio eteronormativo di genere e promuovere l'inclusione della comunità LGBTQ+ nella danza sportiva.

Chi siamo

(Cis-)Heteronormativity

"A pervasive system of belief that centers and naturalizes heterosexuality and a binary system of assigned sex/gender when there are two rigid, distinct ways of being: assigned-male-at-birth masculine men and assigned-female-at-birth feminine women" (GSCC). 

Cultural Appropriation

Appropriation of “something of cultural value, usually a symbol or a practice, to others. […] The contextual conditions that can render acts of cultural appropriation more egregious include: the existence of a power imbalance between the cultural appropriator and those from whom the practice or symbol is appropriated; the absence of consent; and the presence of profit that accrues to the appropriator” (Lenard and Balint 2020).

Gender binary

"A socially constructed gender system in which gender is classified into two distinct and opposite categories. These gender categories are both narrowly defined and disconnected from one another. They are strictly enforced through rigid gender roles and expectations. Further, there is a hierarchy inherent to the classification, in which one gender, men/boys/masculinity, has access to power and privilege and the other, women/girls/femininity, is marginalized and oppressed. These classifications are seen as immutable; those assigned male at birth should identify as men and embody masculinity, and those assigned female at birth should identify as women and embody femininity. This binary system excludes nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender non-conforming individuals. All people are harmed by the gender binary system, but your place within the system determines the degree and quality of harm. The gender binary is weaponized through conquest, colonization, and continued occupation of indigenous peoples’ lands. The gender binary system is inherently violent and foregrounds all gender-based oppression" (GSCC).

Homophobia

"The irrational fear, hatred, and intolerance of gay and/or queer people. Sometimes used as an umbrella term encompassing phobias associated with marginalized sexual and gender identities" (GSCC). 

Hypersexualization

‘Accentuating of one’s sexuality in such a way as to make it extraordinarily sexual,’ also modifying girls’ appearance towards erotization (Liotard and Jamain-Samson 2011, 63).

Latin DanceSport

DanceSport is the competitive counterpart to ballroom dancing. It comprises two disciplines, Standard (featuring Slow Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Slow Fox, and Quickstep) and Latin (with Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Rumba, Paso Doble and Jive). 

Male gaze

Consistent imagery deployed by Western media ‘of female corporeity in Western culture,’ which is ‘constructed and developed through a gender ideology at the service of the institutions of patriarchy, and covertly disseminated through the imposed and controlling definition of the “ideal” model of the female body.’ The exposure and objectification of women’s bodies in Western society socially constructed, created, and disseminated in the media to satisfy the men watching them (Ponterotto 2016, 134). 

Male supremacy

Ideology that ‘governs how the sexes are socialized (males to aggression, force, and efficacy and females to passivity, virtue, and obedience)’ (Waylen et al. 2013, 40).

Non-binary

"A gender identity term for a person who identifies outside of the gender binary. Non-binary is also conceptualized as an array of genders at some distance form the gender binary. Non-binary is sometimes written as “nonbinary.” A common abbreviation for non-binary is enby" (GSCC).

Objectification

Treating ‘a human being as a “thing,” disregarding [their] personality, autonomy, and sentience.’ Sexual objectification is by extension the tendency to ‘focus on women’s appearances in a sexualised way while ignoring women’s personalities’ (Ramsey, Marotta, and Hoyt 2017, 259) (2012, 1). 

Sexism

“Subjectively favorable and unfavorable attitudes (toward both sexes) that reinforce gender inequality. This new framework focuses on how sexist attitudes, both explicit and implicit, reconcile male dominance with intimate heterosexual interdependence. Sexist beliefs not only influence expectations about each sex, but prescribe how men and women ‘should’ behave. Favorable emotional and behavioral reactions reward members of each sex when they conform to gender-traditional traits, while gender ‘deviants’ are punished. Thus, although ambivalent and context dependent, sexist attitudes serve a common goal: to reinforce traditional gender role and power distinctions” (Glick and Rudman 2010). 

Transphobia

"Fear, hatred, and intolerance of transgender, nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming people, or those who break, blur, or transgress assigned gender roles and the gender binary" (GSCC).

Transgender or trans*

"A gender identity term for an individual whose gender identity does not match or is at some distance from the gender identity assumed based on their birth-assigned sex. For some folks, transgender and/or trans are considered to be umbrella terms" (GSCC).

Chi siamo

Methodology

  • Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing Gender. Routledge.

  • Foucault, Michel. 1976. Histoire de La Sexualité, Vol. 1: La Volonté de Savoir. Gallimard.

  • Glick, Peter, and Laurie A. Rudman. 2010. ‘Sexism’. In The SAGE Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination, by John Dovidio, Miles Hewstone, Peter Glick, and Victoria Esses, 328–44. 1 Oliver’s Yard, 55 City Road, London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom: SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446200919.n20.

  • Gender and Sexuality Campus Centre (GSCC). Glossary. Michigan State University.

  • Jones, Stacy Holman., and Anne M. Harris. 2018. Queering Autoethnography. Routledge.

  • Lapadat, Judith C. 2017. ‘Ethics in Autoethnography and Collaborative Autoethnography’. Qualitative Inquiry, 1–15.

  • Lenard, Patti Tamara, and Peter Balint. 2020. ‘What Is (the Wrong of) Cultural Appropriation?’ Ethnicities 20 (2): 331–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468796819866498.

  • Liotard, Philippe, and Sandrine Jamain-Samson. 2011. ‘La « Lolita » et La « sex Bomb », Figures de Socialisation Des Jeunes Filles. L’hypersexualisation En Question’. Sociologie et Sociétés 43 (1): 45–71. https://doi.org/10.7202/1003531ar.

  • Meneau, Val. 2020. ‘Coding Sexual Violence as Love – Choreographed Heteronormative Gender Performances in Latin American Competitive Dancing’. Journal of Gender Studies 29 (8): 962–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1823824.

  • ———. 2023. ‘DanceSport’s Economy of Desire – a Dispositive Analysis of the Heteronormative Gender Binary in Latin American Competitive Dancing’. PhD Dissertation, University of Salzburg.

  • ———. 2024. ‘Queer Dancers’ Experiences in the Dancesport World: Exclusion, Invisibilisation, and Assimilation’. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 43 (9).

  • Ponterotto, Diane. 2016. ‘Resisting the Male Gaze: Feminist Responses to the “Normatization” of the Female Body in Western Culture.’ Journal of International Women’s Studies 17 (1): 133–51.

  • Ramsey, Laura R., Justin A. Marotta, and Tiffany Hoyt. 2017. ‘Sexualized, Objectified, but Not Satisfied: Enjoying Sexualization Relates to Lower Relationship Satisfaction through Perceived Partner-Objectification’. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 34 (2): 258–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407516631157.

  • Richardson, Niall. 2018. ‘“Whether You Are Gay or Straight, I Don’t like to See Effeminate Dancing”: Effeminophobia in Performance-Level Ballroom Dance’. Journal of Gender Studies 27 (2): 207–19.

  • Vandenbosch, Laura, and Steven Eggermont. 2012. ‘Understanding Sexual Objectification: A Comprehensive Approach Toward Media Exposure and Girls’ Internalization of Beauty Ideals, Self-Objectification, and Body Surveillance: Media, Adolescent Girls, and Self-Objectification’. Journal of Communication 62 (5): 869–87. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01667.x.

  • Vear, Craig, Linda Candy, and Ernest Edmonds. 2021. The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research. 1st ed. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429324154.

  • Waylen, Georgina, Karen Celis, Johanna Kantola, and Laurel Weldon, eds. 2013. Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199751457.013.0004.

Switching

  • Kaminsky, David. 2021. Social Partner Dance Body, Sound, and Space. London: Routledge.

  • McMains, Juliet. 2006. Glamour Addiction: Inside the American Ballroom Dance Industry. Wesleyan.

  • Meneau, Val. 2020. ‘Coding Sexual Violence as Love – Choreographed Heteronormative Gender Performances in Latin American Competitive Dancing’. Journal of Gender Studies 29 (8): 962–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1823824.

  • ———. 2024. ‘Queer Dancers’ Experiences in the Dancesport World: Exclusion, Invisibilisation, and Assimilation’. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 43 (9).

  • ———. 2025. DanceSport’s Economy of Desire: A Queer Feminist Perspective. Bloomsbury Academic.

  • Robinson, Danielle. 2015. Modern Moves. Dancing Race During the Ragtime and Jazz Eras. OUP.

  • Wong, Yen Nee. 2024. Equality Dancesport: Gender and Sexual Identities Matter. New York, NY: Routledge.

  • Young, Iris Marion. 2001. ‘Justice and the Politics of Difference’. In The New Social Theory Reader, edited by Steven Seidman and Jeffrey C. Alexander, 2nd ed. Routledge.

Desexualising

  • Kaminsky, David. 2021. Social Partner Dance Body, Sound, and Space. London: Routledge.

  • McMains, Juliet. 2001. ‘Brownface: Representations of Latin-Ness in Dancesport’. Dance Research Journal 33 (2): 54. https://doi.org/10.2307/1477804.

  • ———. 2013. ‘Hot Latin Dance: Ethnic Identity and Stereotype’. In The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Ethnicity, edited by Anthony Shay. Oxford University Press.

  • Meneau, Val. 2020. ‘Coding Sexual Violence as Love – Choreographed Heteronormative Gender Performances in Latin American Competitive Dancing’. Journal of Gender Studies 29 (8): 962–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1823824.

  • ———. 2024. ‘Queer Dancers’ Experiences in the Dancesport World: Exclusion, Invisibilisation, and Assimilation’. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 43 (9).

  • ———. 2025. DanceSport’s Economy of Desire: A Queer Feminist Perspective. Bloomsbury Academic.

  • Young, Iris Marion. 2001. ‘Justice and the Politics of Difference’. In The New Social Theory Reader, edited by Steven Seidman and Jeffrey C. Alexander, 2nd ed. Routledge.

Further readings

  • Bonner, Frances, ed. Imagining Women: Cultural Representations and Gender. Repr. Cambridge: Polity Press u.a, 1995.

  • Bosse, Joanna. Becoming Beautiful: Ballroom Dance in the American Heartland. University of Illinois Press, 2015.

  • Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. Routledge, 1999.

  • Connell, Raewyn W., and Rebecca Pearse. Gender: In World Perspective. John Wiley & Sons / POLITY PR, 2014.

  • Desmond, Jane, ed. Dancing Desires: Choreographing Sexualities on and off the Stage. Studies in Dance History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.

  • Ericksen, Julia. Dance With Me: Ballroom Dancing and the Promise of Instant Intimacy. NYU Press, 2011.

  • Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Sex/Gender: Biology in a Social World. Routledge, 2012.

  • Foster, Susan Leigh. ‘Choreographies of Gender’. Signs 24, no. 1 (1998): 1–33.

  • Foucault, Michel. Surveiller et Punir. Naissance de La Prison. Gallimard, 1975.

  • Harman, Vicki. The Sexual Politics of Ballroom Dancing. Palgrave McMillan, 2019.

  • Kammeyer, Kenneth C. W. A Hypersexual Society: Sexual Discourse, Erotica, and Pornography in America Today. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2008. 

  • Kuhn, Annette. The Power of the Image: Essays on Representation and Sexuality. 1st ed. Routledge, 2013. 

  • Lloyd, Moya. ‘Power, Politics, Domination, and Oppression’. In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics, edited by Georgina Waylen, Karen Celis, Johanna Kantola, and Laurel Weldon, 111–34. Oxford University Press, 2013. 

  • Malnig, Julie, ed. Ballroom, Boogie, Shimmy Sham, Shake: A Social and Popular Dance Reader. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009.

  • Marion, Jonathan. Ballroom: Culture and Costumes in Competitive Dance (Dress, Body, Culture). BergPublishers, 2008.

  • ———. ‘Rumba Encounters. Transculturation of Cuban Rumba in American and European Ballrooms’. In Making Caribbean Dance. Continuity and Creativity in Island Cultures, edited by Susanna Sloat. University Press of Florida, 2010.

  • Mulvey, Laura. ‘Unmasking the Gaze: Some Thoughts on New Feminist Film Theory and History’. In Lectora 7: Revista de Dones i Textualitat. Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 2001.

  • Oksala, Johanna. ‘Microphysics of Power’. In The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory, edited by Lisa Jane Disch and Mary Hawkesworth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

  • Picart, Caroline. From Ballroom to DanceSport: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Body Culture. SUNY, 2006.

Chi siamo

Funder

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)

Concept, research, performance

Val Meneau & Giulia Settomini

 

The FWF funds the production of the website and media content, but not the work that goes into creating the content, which amounts to thousands of hours of unpaid labour that goes into researching, writing, editing, translating, choreographing, managing social media, conceptualising. 

Webdesign

Kalena Designs

Switching

Maja Karolina Franke – Performance

Vedran Nedelkovski – Performance 

Silas Isenmann – Videography

Carina Armes – Photography 

Volkskundemuseum Wien – Location 

Lena Fletcher - Coordination

Desexualising

Silas Isenmann – Videography

Carina Armes – Photography 

Volkskundemuseum Wien – Location 

Lena Fletcher - Coordination

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