Intermediary Stages of Art and Sexuality
Body images in modern dance oscillate between nature and culture, society and individuality, equality and diversity, otherness and familiarity. But how are these bodies connected to the history of sexuality and queer liberation movements? This lecture assembles historic archive materials on dance, sexuality and pop culture and traces the developments of modern dance, with a special focus on Magnus Hirschfeld, sexologist and pioneer of the homosexual movement in Germany. The material will also give insight into the performances by Voo-doo, Joachim von Seewitz and Julius Hans Spiegel, which were presented on professional stages, in variety theatres and at visual art institutions. These characters and their oeuvre blur the lines between artistic dance and travesty/drag and question the role of transgender identity in modern dance, while their use of exotic imagery is also embedded in colonial and racist discourses. They represent an alternative reading of modern dance that centers around queerness – even if it’s only a partial liberation.
is a theatre and dance scholar as well as dramaturg and curator. He has presented his research on the historiography of European stage dance, politics of the archive and queer and exotic performances in academic and artistic settings and contexts. Together with Anna Wagner, he initiated the Julius-Hans-Spiegel Centre for artistic-academic research into exoticisms in modern dance. Additionally, he was co-curator of the International Summer Festival at Kampnagel from 2013 to 2016, jury member for Tanzplattform in 2016 and curatorial advisor for the 2019 Tanzkongress. He is currently senior scientist at the Centre for Gender Studies at the University of Graz. His most recent publication is Theater* in queerem Alltag und Aktivismus der 1970er und 1980er Jahre (2022, together with Jenny Schrödl).
In English