My performance is my world. Queer and normativity in the practices of New York’s ballroom culture

The central concept of the article is performance as a form of expression specific to non-normative people. In confrontation with the oppressive discourse of dominant groups, the body of an excluded individual and its metamorphoses in themselves appear to be an alternative way of non-alienated expression. This phenomenon is discussed via the example of the practices of New York’s ballroom culture — primarily via the example of the film Paris is Burning from 1990, directed by Jennie Livingston. In the ballroom community, black and non-heteronormative Americans found a safe space for experiments with their identity, thanks to which they could experience a form of capitalistic success through an ephemeral performance. However, these practices, despite their apparent subversiveness and emancipatory potential, did not have the ambition to change the status quo. They only allowed experiencing the feeling of social advancement within the existing system. The story that ballroom culture members in the 1980s told about themselves through their own performances was part of a unique, non-verbal discourse of excluded groups, which developed a specific communication code based on the human body, its ways of moving and its aesthetic metamorphoses.

Russian Ballroom Culture: Europeanization and original traditions (sociocultural essay)

Dance is definitely a cultural phenomenon. The well-known Russian historian Yuri Lotman outlined the concept of "culture" as a form of social communication between a group of people. Pair dancing is the best way to illustrate this statement. Dancing itself is the language of communication for a particular society. To be a full participant in such social intercourse, you must have the knowledge of the “language” of the group, follow the protocol of behavior and demonstrate membership / loyalty to the group. Dance is a non-verbal form of communication, built on the interaction of dancers in specific movements and symbolism of appearance and attributes. Ballroom dancing is a symbol of belonging to the nobility, participation in balls is a confirmation of loyalty to the ruling elite, the state.

Urban social space and the development of public dance hall culture in Vienna, 1780–1814

ABSTRACT:This article seeks to understand how the emergence of public dance hall culture affected the consumption of dance music among different social classes in Vienna between the years 1780 and 1814, when the number of dance halls more than tripled. Using mainly contemporary eyewitness accounts as sources, this article argues that social distinctions, rather than disappearing, were reinforced after the commercialization of the Viennese dance halls. As turn-of-the-century Vienna was a major city with a heterogeneous population, the diversity of social classes was reflected in its ballroom culture. This is because the Viennese elite, the nobility and the higher bourgeoisie, was very reluctant to share social space with the lower classes. Although to some degree the amount of social space expanded in the city at the time, the use of the space, however, remained socially diverse.