Decomposing the Scene: gender, community, race, and dance as a contact zone in Mimosa / Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning

Abstract:

This article explores dance through the lens of gender, using the case study of Mimosa/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning, a collective performance conceived by four of the most important contemporary choreographers: Trajal Harrell, Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, and Marlene Monteiro Freitas. This text interrogates different elements highlighted by this performance, such as how dance heritage may dialogue with contemporary perspectives concerning class, gender, and race issues, to help us better understand the representation of subcultural identity in dance.

Keywords:
Community; Contact Zone; Voguing; Gender; Postmodern Dance

Resumo:

Este artigo explora a dança por intermédio da lente do gênero, utilizando o estudo de caso de Mimosa / Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning, uma performance coletiva concebida por quatro dos mais importantes coreógrafos contemporâneos: Trajal Harrell, Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud e Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Este texto interroga diferentes elementos destacados por essa performance, como a forma pela qual a herança da dança pode dialogar com as perspectivas contemporâneas referentes a questões de classe, gênero e raça, para nos ajudar a compreender melhor a representação da identidade subcultural na dança.

Palavras-chave:
Comunidade; Zona de Contato; Voguing; Gênero; Dança pós-moderna

Résumé:

Cet article vise à explorer la danse à travers le prisme du genre, en utilisant l'étude de cas de Mimosa/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning, une performance collective conçue par quatre des plus importants chorégraphes contemporains : Trajal Harrell, Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud et Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Ce texte interrogera différents éléments mis en évidence par cette performance, tels que la manière dont l'héritage de la danse peut dialoguer avec les perspectives contemporaines concernant les questions de classe, de genre et de race, nous aidant ainsi à mieux comprendre la représentation de l'identité sous-culturelle dans la danse.

Mots-clés:
Communauté; Contact Zone; Voguing; Genre; Postmodern Dance

In the past decade, queer and trans-feminist theorists have made a significant effort to outline a queer and trans genealogy of performance within a global context. Theatre and dance provide privileged spaces where the representation of gender and multiple corporealities can be explored. Using the case study of Mimosa/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning, a collective performance conceived in 2009 by four prominent Western contemporary choreographers: Trajal Harrell, Cecilia Bengolea, François Chaignaud, and Marlene Monteiro Freitas, this article explores how contemporary reflections about gender representation can disclose their heritage. It highlights how dance strategies have problematized notions of gender representing non-normative subjects and corporealities and how this artistic research preceded some of the core topics interrogated by queer theory, trans-feminist theory, and intersectional perspectives.

By analyzing the questions raised by the four choreographers of Mimosa in their fictive dialogue with the historical heritage and dance practices of Postmodern Dance and Voguing, this essay engages with the piece primarily via an aesthetic methodological approach. Drawing from Voguing and Postmodern Dance, the two central dance forms combined and explored within Mimosa, this article reflects on the reception of the notion of 'Realness' and consider the ability of non-normative corporealities to problematize identity and gender representation. 'Realness' will be considered both as an aesthetic tool and as a notion that helps us understand identity in an intersectional perspective. These themes are examined within the context of a queer and trans perspective, drawing particularly on the thinking of Judith Butler and Paul B. Preciado.

Re-thinking Dance in the Perspective of Contemporary Gendered Bodies

In 2009, The Kitchen, a vanguard cultural and theater venue in New York, invited the choreographer Trajal Harrell to create Mimosa, a project that ultimately resulted in a work in three parts: M, S, and XS. Each part presented different versions of the same show with various performers. Mimosa (M), which debuted in 2011, is the largest version of the trilogy and was created in collaboration with three other prominent choreographers: the French-based duo Cecilia Bengolea and François Chaignaud and the Lisbon-based Marlene Monteiro Freitas, originally from Cape Verde.

The full title of the performance, (M)imosa / Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church (M), directly mentions the two key references that the choreographers sought to emphasize: Jennie Livingston's documentary Paris Is Burning and the Judson Church, a seminal site in postmodern dance. The documentary Paris Is Burning chronicles the lives of various figures within the New York Latinx drag queen community, the birthplace of Voguing. This reference situates the performance within the LGBTQIA+ cultural context, highlighting both its dance heritage and the impact the film had on the development of gender theory. Notably, one of the film's protagonists, Venus Xtravaganza, served as a case study for Judith Butler's theories of gender and subversive performance, as discussed in Butler’s seminal works Gender Trouble (Butler, 1999) and Bodies That Matter (Butler, 1993). Thus, Mimosa not only pays homage to the historical and cultural significance of Voguing but also engages with the theoretical discourse on gender that Voguing has helped to shape.

Moreover, according to Harrell, Mimosa engaged with three initial questions:

I. What would happen if the Voguing scene in Harlem came Downtown to dance alongside the pioneers of Postmodern Dance?

II. What could we learn from imagining this historical fiction of an encounter between the avant-garde dancers from these two different communities, accidentally honing their practices side by side at the same historical moment in New York City?

III. What might be the role of historical fiction in a city that has given birth to a multitude of musical and dance styles over the past fifty years, including, Krumping, House, Grime Dance, Voguing, and Postmodern Dance?

In their imaginative dialogues stemming from these guiding questions, the artists turn to the past and explore temporal gaps and narrative detours to create a meaningful, transformative relationship with the present, mobilizing a perspective imbued with queer theory and perspectives.

The choreographers of Mimosa seem to embrace Elisabeth Freeman’s concept of “queer asynchronies,” which offers opportunities to rethink historically significant moments through what Freeman defines as temporal drag - the visceral pull of the past on the supposedly revolutionary present and the conscious use of the body as a channel for understanding the past (Freeman, 2010). These concepts encourage the audience to reevaluate queer politics and the agency of bodies within their histories and experiences, thereby highlighting the value of heritage in contemporary artistic and social reflections.

Re-thinking the revolutionary perspective of Postmodern Dance and Voguing

The choreographers note that the creation of Mimosa was preceded by an extensive exploration of Voguing and Postmodern Dance history and practices, especially in terms of their aesthetics and social contexts. Although both are considered urban North American movements and developed simultaneously in New York in the 1960s, they each articulate unique aspects of their respective cultural, artistic, and social landscapes.

Postmodern Dance is labelled as a concert dance form (Banes, 2011; Thompson, 2021; Mazzaglia, 2010) which developed within the iconic Judson Memorial Church¹ in Greenwich Village (New York). The Judson Dance Theater, in particular, served as a crucial gathering place for artists from various disciplines. Sally Banes (2011, p. 208) claims that the most precise description of the Judson Dance Theater is that it was a loosely organized collective of choreographers, poets, and musicians who met weekly at the Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square from 1962 to 1965. The group produced over two hundred dances in twenty concerts, comprised mostly of one-night performances. Its representatives encompassed the impulse toward physical and political liberation that captured the American imagination in the 1960s² (Banes, 2011, p. 209). Thompson recalls that the notion of Postmodern Dance sought to deflate the overly self-interested view of art that the artists working at Judson Memorial Church perceived within Modern Dance. Postmodern Dance was thus mobilized by an antimodern dance sentiment more than by the search for and condition of a new dance style (Thompson, 2021).

The Judson group rejected the compositional and presentation constraints of Modern Dance, while advocating for the unconventional use of music and space, as they often preferred to perform outside traditional theater venues such as in streets and art galleries. In terms of body movements and the composition of scenes, they valued movement not as a storytelling device but for its own sake. Their choreographic research relied mainly on improvisation and aimed to embed daily practices into culture. Therefore, reading a poem, eating an apple, or undressing in public could all be seen as legitimate acts of dance. Herein ordinary acts of daily life claimed the same aesthetic legitimacy as those attributed to the virtuous techniques of dance. These practices were renamed Postmodern Dance for their connections with the postmodern art movement. Sally Banes recalls how the first performance held by students of Merce Cunningham became a model for an inexpensive and cooperative production system for new works of Postmodern Dance (Banes, 2011). Postmodern Dance integrated a strong ideological experimentation, as identified within Yvonne Rainer's No Manifesto³. In a concise yet assertive list, Rainer marks the aesthetic and compositional principles of Postmodern Dance, rejecting elements such as virtuosity, transformation, trash imagery, performer or spectator involvement, style, camp, and eccentricity. Essentially, Postmodern Dance sought to remove theatricality in favor of authenticity, through a hybridization of artistic forms and the democratization of dance by encouraging broad participation. Theatricality is described by Josette Féral as a way of attenuating reality to make it aesthetic or erotic (Féral, 2007).

Whilst Postmodern Dance emerged within the established world of white professional dance, as an inner product and reaction to a Modern Dance, Voguing emerged within the marginalized Black and Latinx social community of Harlem. These divergent conditions influenced the dissemination and visibility of each dance form. Voguing gained significant popularity in the 1990s, largely due to pop singer Madonna’s song ‘Vogue,’ which elevated Voguing to global recognition. Voguing can be defined as a community-based dance practice that is highly codified and with issues of identity and subjectivity at its compositional core. Voguing or house ball communities have been defined by Bailey (2013) as networks of mostly Black and Latinx women, men, and transgender folks who may be lesbian, gay, bisexual, straight, or queer. Voguing may be seen to confront issues of gender, sexuality and class struggle from an intersectional perspective. Davis, quoted by Smythe, argues that Voguing is a world “built on the backs of African-American trans women,” where the ballroom scene has historically provided a haven for trans people and people of color, particularly those experiencing hardships such as homelessness or rejection by their biological families due to their LGBTQ+ identities (Smythe, 2019). Ballrooms have often constituted themselves as shelters or alternative families, and organized themselves around Houses, renaming themselves with family names, commonly inspired by fashion brands. As part of the process of belonging to the community, each new member's identity is reconfigured, as he/she/they need to accept the symbolic practice to take on a new role as a mother, sister, or brother and eventually a new name. In this 'liberation' or emancipation from the past, every community member can embody the character they aspire to be.

Chatzipapatheodorlidis (2017) notes that Voguing Houses foster a sense of belonging among members, particularly through the competitive process of balls, during which contestants represent and honor the House to which they belong. Voguing dance is usually based on inter-house competitions, where the groups/family face each other in a challenge from which the best must emerge⁴. Originally, such “battles” were based upon fixed designated categories such as the “Vogue” category which evolved from a “woman from Queens”. The category is related to the gay imaginary of the divas of the 1950s, which is part of the origin of Voguing. Animated by admiration for the American elite -specifically, wealthy white women - drag queens of color began to exaggerate hand movements and mimic the poses of models and upper-class individuals. They staged their performances in clubs, practicing in front of mirrors to perfect their transformation with makeup and dresses, aiming to embody the idealized image of American wealth and fashionable femininity associated with middle and upper-class white heterosexual norms. For voguers, the goal was to pass as the cherished subject and visually narrate their story.

Kevin Omni Burrus, a historic member of the House of Omni, reflects that Voguing became a significant escape for drag queens, serving as a means to channel and alleviate the pain and oppression experienced in real life. This concept aligns with Johnson’s definition of “performance as a survival strategy” (Johnson 2005, 140). Within Voguing, the category of 'Realness' serves both as a performative category and a conceptual notion. Participants in the 'Realness' categories aim to be perceived as someone they are not, striving to achieve a “socially formed reality” through their actions and presentation. By imitating hegemonic norms of femininity or masculinity, voguers produce an idealized and cherished subjectivity, recreating and parodying the world from which they feel excluded. Ballrooms and the practice of 'Realness' offer individuals a space to perform their cherished gender identities within a supportive environment. 'Realness' categories thus serve as tools for participants to rehearse and enact various identities, which may be seen to help them navigate and prepare for life outside the Ballroom scene.

Most significantly, the Ballroom community has developed its own identity system that extends beyond the dominant white, androcentric-heteronormative framework. As noted by Hoarau R. and Bailey, this system includes a six-part sex/gender classification that builds upon initial categories: Women, Men, Butch Queens, Butch Queens up in Drag, Butches, and Femme Queens. This expanded classification reflects a more nuanced understanding of gender and identity within the Ballroom culture, challenging traditional binary notions⁵.

While identity was central to Voguing dance, the Judson Dance Theater's approach to identity was more critical and analytical, focusing on how artists’ identities influenced their creative expressions and outcomes. It is important to note, however, that the question of identity and the interrogation of gender categories in relation to dominant culture were not explicitly addressed by the Judson dancers and choreographers at the time. It would be several decades before Yvonne Rainer, for instance, openly defined herself as a political lesbian (Rights…, 2022). For the Judson dancers, gender was not a primary aesthetic or ideological concern. As Bennahum, Perron, and Robertson (2018) argue, the Judson group rather challenged the male gaze in dance by employing counterintuitive tactics. One such tactic, used by choreographers like Anna Halprin, Simone Forti, and Yvonne Rainer, was the presentation of the nude body in de-sexualized terms, coupled with a feminist critique of virtuosity. This approach was a deliberate departure from modernist dance practices and ideologies of the past, including the notion articulated by George Balanchine that ‘ballet is woman’ (Bennhaum; Perron; Robertson, 2018, p. 22). The intense focus on the “thingness” of the body paradoxically undermined traditional gender norms. Drawing from these two distinct practices, the choreographers of Mimosa expand upon features of both such as identity, compositional choreography, and aesthetic elements. They incorporate aspects of identity exploration and compositional strategies that reflect both Voguing’s emphasis on personal and fluid identity and the Judson’s more academically critical approach to traditional gender norms.

Mimosa, between 'Realness' and Embodiment

The complexity of blending divergent aspects of Voguing and Postmodern Dance is intricately embedded in the aesthetic and compositional choices of Mimosa. The piece is primarily framed around two main axes: aesthetic components and personal storytelling. We may understand “personal storytelling” as the construction of a subject through language. The performance’s structure remains notably simple and linear, inspired by Voguing's catwalk style, with each dancer performing mostly solo on stage. In contrast, the scenography evokes Postmodern Dance, characterized by its minimal décor - comprising just four lamps that keep the stage in semi-darkness. This fictive dialogue between postmodern minimalism and Voguing's camp and parodic aesthetics is also reflected in the characters' embodiment. For example, Harrell adopts a minimalistic dress style, while François Chaignaud and Marlene Monteiro Freitas engage with a camp aesthetic associated with drag queen and drag king practices. Overall, the choreographers aim to destabilize the audience’s perception of identity and gender by pursuing the continuous aesthetic transformations of each character. This approach highlights the multiplicity and fluidity of corporeality and the constant displacement of gendered bodies, with frequent references to popular and iconic subjects. Although the structure replicates the Voguing catwalk, it lacks the competitive element typical of Voguing, favoring instead a sense of co-presence and community. This is emphasized by the performers' constant presence on stage; even when not actively performing, François Chaignaud remains in the first row, seamlessly blending the theater space with the wardrobe situated directly on stage. Marlene Monteiro Freitas is the first to perform, immediately immersing the audience in the gender-blending atmosphere proposed by the performance. Dressed in black pants, Doc Martens boots, and with wavy hair pinned up, she presents her bust to the audience's gaze on a semi-obscure stage⁶. The stage becomes a space for experimenting with movements, impulses, and fragmented actions as she explores various walking styles and rhythms, mimicking both “male” and “female” gaits. The music enhances the mood, evoking the atmosphere of walking down a New York street. The scene culminates in a crescendo of rhythm and intensity, with Marlene positioned in front of a microphone. In a sensual tone, she softly says, “Hello everyone, thank you so much for coming tonight. My name is Mimosa Ferrara, and these fucking pants are always falling down” (Audience laughs). “I would like to welcome you tonight. Merci.” Right after this scene, Mimosa's identity is taken on by Trajal Harrell, who follows dressed in black shirt and trousers. He introduces himself, “Welcome. Good evening. My name is Mimosa Ferrara”, intentionally destabilizing the audience identification with the subject and its gender and ethnic identification. Harrell plays in a karaoke style the song from the British band Starsailor, ‘Alcoholic.’ Then, the French choreographer François Chaignaud reverses the scene entering from the gallery. He renames himself Mimosa Ferrara once again, but this time Mimosa resembles a fifties diva, adorned with a fur coat and a long glittering dress. With a brilliant and feminine operetta-style falsetto voice, he sings in English: “You can fuck the Russians and the English too. Who can fuck the Germans? For the Queens and the Kings. You should fuck the ugly, to be kind and polite.” In an ironic, campy, and exaggerated manner, he concludes by stating, “You should fuck the rules... but before that, you should fuck me.” The spectators realize that Mimosa has come to represent a fluid identity and multifaceted body on which sexual codes of recognition are persistently blurred. Chaignaud’s appearance blends drag queen and operetta-style characters, provocatively and ironically playing with diva female stereotypes and the social expectation of “proper conduct and language”.

Another corporeality is disclosed in the following scene. Cecilia Bengolea shares the stage with Marlene Monteiro Freitas. Freitas sits on the floor, while Cecilia is hidden beneath an indistinct figure lying on the floor, completely encased in a white-flesh-colored latex suit. Red heels and a wide-brimmed grey hat complete this undefined and object-like figure, twisted in a complicated position. The figure of Bengolea is unanimated on the ground while Marlene Monteiro Freitas mimics a pianist, sitting on the floor with her back to the audience. The scene evokes the image of a masterful artist creating a new work or even bringing forth a new creature, one that remains gender undefined in this context. Once Monteiro leaves the stage, Bengolea takes the spotlight. Constrained by the tight latex costume, Bengolea slowly moves as a puppet-like figure, an inanimate being, and gradually breathes life into this ambiguous subject. She moves like a spider as she crawls and maneuvers across the stage, struggling to lift herself while maintaining balance on her high heels. In the progress of the scene, the latex suit accentuates the contours of her slender body, revealing the shape of a penis. This newly born creature approaches the microphone and opens the latex suit, exposing a female breast. Bengolea explains in Spanish, her mother tongue, what Mimosa means: “one who loves caresses.” Soon Chaignaud joins Bengolea on stage in a duet scene. He positions himself at the back of the stage, dressed only in panties and holding two fake yet extremely realistic breasts as extensions of his body. The two bodies reflect each other like a mirror. Bengolea’s slender and androgynous body displays both a breast and a prosthetic penis. She plays with the ambiguity of appearance and vision, challenging dominant sex and gender roles that associate manhood with men and womanhood with women. François Chaignaud operates within the same framework, presenting a feminized body with breast prostheses.

This duet scene also recalls a postmodern performance by Yvonne Rainer. Rainer developed a duet with Steve Paxton in which, naked, they mirrored each other's gestures to propose new possibilities for the non-normatively gendered body (Bennhaum; Perron; Robertson, 2018). It is evident that both choreographers play with stereotypes of femininity and masculinity, blurring their fragile and illusory boundaries, while renegotiating the naturalistic vision outlined by Gayle Rubin, in which sex and gender are considered by the dominant culture as naturally established. A naturalistic vision which has historically justified the exclusionary and hierarchical condition imposed on women. This relation was criticized by post-structuralist and queer theorists who asserted that while sex is biological, gender is culturally constructed. In the construction of sex and gender, medicine, as an institution or a Foucaultian “dispositive”⁷, may be seen to play a fundamental role. As Paul B. Preciado (2008) notes, medicine has a prominent role in both defining gender norms and in the production of the normalization process based on binary sex categories. The idea of a binary of sexes has also been dismantled by biologists such as Anne Fausto Sterling (2013), who affirm that a multitude of genders and sexes coexist. The choreographers of Mimosa can certainly be seen to assume this gender continuum.

The four choreographers of Mimosa explore the gender continuum and multiple possibilities existing between sex and gender to challenge concepts of gender “identification”. They establish a dynamic of continuous transformation in Mimosa’s identities and body, persistently confronting the audience’s individual perceptions of femaleness and maleness and their frontiers. This fluidity and anti-fixity celebrate the heritage of the Voguing community that arose even before the formal development of queer studies. In this perception of gender, the choreographers seem to align with the notion that understanding gender requires deconstructing it (Butler, 2004). They aim to reveal how subjectivities are constructed, and which norms govern our naming and being, especially in relation to the norms for aesthetic beauty that regulate what is deemed acceptable for women and men. Guillaume Marche’s observations on queer political movements may be considered important here. Marche notes that diverse gender expressions within queer communities - such as masculine gay men, feminine lesbians, and other forms of sexual and gender expression - have been symbolically erased to construct a unified social image of a more homogenous queer community, especially in the 1990s (Marche, 2017). This process of normalization of the queer community, referred to by some scholars as homonormativity, contrasts with the ballroom categories mentioned above and the heritage of Voguing. Jasbir Puar alerts us to how configurations of sexuality, race, gender, nation, class, and ethnicity are realigning in relation to contemporary forces of securitization, counterterrorism, and nationalism. According to Puar's argument, heteronormative ideas long dominant in the U.S.A are now accompanied by homonormative ideologies that replicate similar narrow racial, class, gender, and national ideals (Puar, 2007).

However, a subject is not only constructed from aesthetic norms, as Butler reminds us that we become subjects via the process of interpellation. A subject, rather than being identified strictly with an individual, ought to be designated as a linguistic category, a placeholder, a structure in formation. Individuals come to occupy the site of the subject (the subject simultaneously emerges as a “site”), and they enjoy intelligibility only to the extent that they are, as it were, first established in language. The subject is a linguistic occasion for an individual to achieve and reproduce intelligibility, the linguistic condition of its existence and agency (Butler, 1997, p. 10-11). This process of interpellation is disclosed in the second part of Mimosa when the choreographers’ personal storytelling and autofiction is integrated into the piece. Chaignaud narrates that at 19 years old, he began dancing as a transvestite in a French cabaret (in drag balls), where he met a man from a musical group and fell in love. They moved to Portugal together. There, he continued to perform as a drag queen with giant fake breasts, he recalls. One evening, a famous drag queen approached him and called him Mimosa. He discovered that Mimosa did not refer to the flower or someone who likes to be caressed, but rather it was the name of a brand of Portuguese dairy products. This revelation was tinged with irony, as it could be interpreted as an insult.

At the end, Chaignaud (2006) reproduces The Dying Swan, an act which recalls his own tradition and upbringing. In an interview, he recalls how being trained in a classical ballet school led him to intimately understand the fixed models of gender norms imposed within the ballet academy. He questions the implicit conveyance of a predetermined and uniform body, highlighting the impact of gender norms on dancers' corporealities and offering a critical perspective that reflects a broader resistance to restrictive norms within the dance world, contributing to the ongoing discourse on diversity, inclusivity, and the redefinition of body standards in the realm of dance. Meanwhile, Harrell reflects on how his journey as an African-American artist has been marked by periods of estrangement and reconnection with dance. He recounts how his college years led him to abandon dance, only to return to it by chance during a scholarship in Croatia. As the performance unfolds, personal and individual stories of each performer are shared with the audience, further blurring the lines between reality and fiction, challenging audience perceptions. As the final scene approaches, Monteiro returns to the stage, now adorned with a wig, a purple dress, heavy makeup with red lips, and mascara. She once again plays with the identity and definition of Mimosa. Monteiro explains that Mimosa is also a color and highlights its various meanings in different languages; it may mean “yellow,” while in her country of origin Cabo Verde, it signifies “purple”. Thus, the name Mimosa becomes a strategic linguistic tool, encompassing its polysemic meanings, identities, colors, and desires as conveyed by the performers. In the final scene, all the choreographers take the stage, alternating turns in karaoke, lip-syncing, and miming to popular songs. Cecilia Bengolea performs a Kate Bush song, while François Chaignaud, dressed as a diva in a fur coat, sings ‘This Is My Life’ by Shirley Bassey. Marlene Monteiro, dressed as a drag king with a bare chest, false beard, and hair styled to mimic male icons, combines gestures reminiscent of Prince and Michael Jackson. As she lip-syncs to Prince’s song, her postures, moonwalking, and the glove she wears on one hand evoke Michael Jackson. Irony and self-derision are prominent features of this final sequence and these three performers. Conversely, Trajal Harrell is the last to perform, delivering an emotional rendition of Nikka Costa’s ‘(Out Here) On My Own.’ The lyrics of this 1980s hit create a dialogical effect with the performance, stating: “Sometimes I wonder where I've been, Who I am, do I fit in? Make believe it’s hard alone; Out here on my own; We’re always proving who we are, And always reaching for that rising star, To guide me far, and shine me home, Out here on my own”.

Gender, 'Realness' and Queer Practices

By creating a fictive dialogue between two dance traditions, the choreographers interrogate the gendered body and the representation of minority identities, along with their social and historical implications. In alignment with queer and trans theorists, the choreographers recognize the pivotal role that subaltern cultures have played in questioning gender norms and their contributions to contemporary dance aesthetics and ongoing social and political discussions. They highlight the stories of diverse sexual identities and subjectivities marginalized by society, particularly in the theater and performance world, for not conforming to social norms regulating sexuality or gender identity, both during the 1960s in the USA and beyond. In other words, Mimosa brings attention to an invisibilized history and critically examines certain aesthetic practices and notions.

As Bailey (2007) notes, the study of the expansion of gender systems pursued by Voguing and drag balls remains underexplored. Mimosa celebrates Voguing and Postmodern Dance for their innovation in dance forms, both in terms of aesthetic practices and the problematization of gender identities. Consequently, Mimosa can be defined as a queer performance, engaging with the multiple readings that this term implies in relation to dance (Croft, 2017; Farfan, 2017). I refer to the notion advanced by Hélène Beauchamp (2015, p. 122), who suggests that queer aesthetics engage with the exploration of “dissonant states of the body and face, resulting in an indeterminacy of being and, above all, in something dynamic, always in transformation”. This queer definition is further reinforced by Chaignaud, who has spoken of envisioning Mimosa as a manifesto for bodies that have been dreamt of, particularly those marginalized or neglected by contemporary dance.

Additionally, the performance’s references to Paris is Burning and Judith Butler’s influential gender theory situate it in conversation with a queer aesthetic framework and its critical academic counterpart. Gender is no longer viewed as an inherent psychological essence produced by medical and psychiatric contexts but rather as a discursive and corporeal performative practice through which individuals acquire social intelligibility and recognition. Butler's theory may be seen to have transformed gender into an inclusive tool for understanding the process of embodiment, as the dancers in Mimosa also express. Venus Extravaganza, a drag queen from the Latina community and a figure analyzed in Butler’s Gender Trouble, exemplifies this shift. However, this analysis has faced criticism from trans theorists for misinterpreting Venus’s subjectivities, often identifying her as a transvestite⁸ rather than as transgender, which undermines her social status and ethnicity. This criticism highlights a failure to analyze the subject from an intersectional perspective, as theorized by Kimberley Crenshaw (Crenshaw, 1989).

Furthermore, Venus, as a drag queen, mobilizes a figure historically perceived as a continuum between male homosexuality, drag, and transsexual or transgender identities. This figure has attracted significant theoretical attention within queer studies, transgender studies, and trans-feminism. Conversely, Butler's influential work in performative and theatrical fields positions drag queens - and, to a lesser extent, drag kings - as symbolic figures representing gender fluidity and the multitude of subjectivities that exist beyond a binary, heteronormative, androcentric, and white dominant society. Mimosa’s performance extensively draws on drag queen aesthetics, notably through Chaignaud and the closing scene featuring Trajal Harrell. At the end of the performance, Harrell sings Nikka Costa while wearing a colorful wig, creating a striking contrast with his otherwise low-profile, ordinary attire. Most importantly, their exploration of gender employs the Voguing concept of 'Realness' and its social implications.

What does it mean to be real for the Voguing community? Such 'Realness' entails a complete adherence to the idealized identities they aspire to embody. It reflects how Voguers, who are often queer individuals, are perceived both within and outside ballroom spaces. The community’s representation of femininity and masculinity is shaped by the dominant cultural and societal norms governing gender. According to Judith Butler, this process of idealization involves striving to align with societal norms despite the inherent difficulty of fully conforming to them. Here voguers are seen to aspire to be part of the society that frequently marginalizes them. To achieve this, they mimic or perform the identities they wish to adopt. As Mimosa recalls through Nikka Costa's lyrics, individuals must constantly demonstrate and give proof of their gender identity. For the voguers, this performative social constraint is done both within the community during competitions and externally in broader society. The situation varies according to the social context upon which the community is based, as gender norms vary across time and space.

Paul B. Preciado describes a similar condition when arguing that, in parts of the world where some transgender rights are recognized, the freedom to enter sex reassignment ostensibly exists yet only in so far as a transgender subject is able to perform 'correctly' for the examination of a medical specialist to prove that they are 'truly transgender' (Preciado, 2019). In Ballroom, voguers are evaluated based on their ability to embody their idealized selves, which means reproducing stereotypes and aesthetic codes, behaviors, and appearances assigned to both genders by dominant society - the “real” society. To be considered “real”, Voguers must effectively minimize or eliminate any deviation from the dominant gender and sexual norms of heteronormative societies. As Bailey observes: “to be admitted to the competition, you have to engage yourself in categories based on the gender others of their own” (Bailey, 2013, p. 58). This means participants must conform to specific gender categories and demonstrate their adherence to these societal expectations.

However, Hoarau (2023) describes the simultaneous existence of categories within the balls that are not confined to mimicking the binary gender system. These categories allow for participation by individuals regardless of their “chosen” identities. The concept of 'Realness' inherently involves notions of otherness. This refers to the way any self or subject position requires an other or alterity for its own constitution and existence. For minority identities, including queer and ethnic groups, otherness denotes their position within a heteronormative, white, androcentric framework. For voguers, otherness involves the act of “identifying” with or “disidentifying” from a particular group. José Muñoz describes disidentification as a strategy employed by minoritarian communities to navigate and confront dominant gender and sexual norms, either by working within or against these norms (Muñoz, 1999, p. 195). For example, disidentification can be used to assert one's queerness or to distance oneself from queerness. In Mimosa, the performers use the notions of identification and disidentification in the interplay of aesthetic references drawn from the different dance forms involved.

Moreover, the performers create a mutable space where the audience can either identify with or disidentify from the persistent dislocations of subjectivities. The cultural backgrounds of the choreographers also inform their reception and disidentification with the concept of 'Realness'. As Monteiro noted, Voguing is an impenetrable world for those outside North America, distant from the tradition. Marlene Monteiro Freitas is a Creole Cape Verdean, François Chaignaud is a French queer dancer, Cecilia Bengolea is of Argentine origin living in France, and Trajal Harrell is a Black American dancer. The reception of queer theorization must be contextualized outside U.S. borders. For example, queer theory has faced and continues to face significant resistance in different European contexts. Here identification and disidentification may be seen to function as creative tensions for the choreographers, simultaneously distancing them from and bringing them closer to the U.S. dance tradition and community culture. This is particularly evident in Monteiro's performance, where she employs partial nudity and mimics Michael Jackson's movements, adopting a male identity whilst emphasizing ambiguities. By exposing her breasts, she contrasts sharply with the drag king tradition, which necessitates that women erase their femininity to pass as men. Conversely, the performers are driven by the desire to expose the artificiality of gender construction to the audience. As Teresa De Lauretis (2008) states:

Gender is not merely a derivative of anatomical or biological sex but a sociocultural construction, a representation, or more precisely, an effect of the interplay between discursive and visual representations that emanate from various institutional apparatuses such as family, religion, the educational system, medicine, and law, as well as from less obvious sources like language, art, literature, cinema, and theory. The reality of gender lies precisely in the effects of its representation: gender is actualized and becomes ‘real’ when that representation is an act of self-representation, individually assumed as a form of social and subjective identity.

Chaignaud argues that dance provides this opportunity to invent new bodies as it is a practice that is inseparable from imagination, from the possibility of inventing a body. He affirms that: “For me, costume is inseparable from dance. If we imagine that dance is an art of self-invention, of the invention of a body, in a sense the costume reorganizes the organs and for me it is the beginning of dance. It's either fantasizing, inventing or documenting a body” (Chaignaud, 2019).

And he continues:

The interesting thing about this reality (Voguing) is that it includes all the artificial means you may need to use. This reality, Trajal always contrasted it with the authenticity of Judson's thinking, which sought to get rid of all the theatrical tricks. Whereas reality... to be real, you can use a lot of make-up, a lot of fake bras, a lot of costumes, a lot of props that will make you look real. So it's this interesting situation where being real is not getting rid of all the cultural elements and all the tricks, but being real is using everything you can use, from hormones to costumes, from heels to fake dick to pass for what you want to pass for (Renan Benyamina, 2016).

It is crucial to highlight an alternative perspective. As noted by Marlon M. Bailey, within the ballroom community, 'Realness' categories of femininity and masculinity are closely tied to specific sexual attributes and organs, such as the penis, vagina, or breasts. In the world of Voguing, a transgender woman is only considered a “real” feminine woman if she possesses the sexual attributes typically associated with the female body; otherwise, she may not be regarded as “authentic.” Choreographers Marlene Monteiro Freitas, Cecilia Bengolea, and François Chaignaud use this artificial construction - referred to as technologies of gender - to challenge and expand beyond the binary notion of gender, or at the very least, to reactualize gender fluidity within the context of queer and trans studies. The objectified puppet performed by Bengolea, and the mirror scene, disrupt conventional readings of sexual anatomy through the use of prosthetics and lighting. As Paul B. Preciado asserts, trans bodies are produced and identified based on their resistance to binary norms. In fact, Marie Draz (2022) points out how 'Realness', in the early Butlerian framework, is read as normativity. The notion of 'Realness' has been the subject of significant critique, particularly concerning early interpretations by Butler and their relevance to trans identities, as pointed out by Draz (2022), especially in their connection with fluidity. However, the fluidity explored by the choreographers of Mimosa seems to refer to the representation of multiple subjectivities proliferating in our society and serves as a critique, akin to Foucault's assertions, of the disciplinary production of truth involving gender and sexuality (Foucault, 1976). In this context, the choreographers interrogate, aligned with a queer-feminist approach, how bodies are produced and interpreted through gender norms. As Paul B. Preciado (2008) suggests, gender can be viewed as a form of fictional somatopolitics. This perspective involves conceptualizing the body not as “natural,” but as a dynamic political archive - a somatec - to draw from the concept of somatechnics theorized by Susan Stryker. As Sullivan (2014, p. 187-190) explains, Stryker coined the term somatechnics to highlight what they saw as the inextricability of soma and techné, of the body (as a culturally intelligible construct) and techniques (dispositifs and hard technologies) in and through which corporealities are formed and transformed. According to Preciado, this archive encompasses the entire history of oppression, while simultaneously embodying its revolutionary potential and capacity for resistance.

The choreographers of Mimosa extend this interrogation by representing bodies that challenge the sex binary system. They embrace the perspectives of transgender theorists like Kate Bornstein and Susan Stryker, who identify as genderqueer and reject normative impositions of masculinity and femininity. Reworking the concept of 'Realness' within the temporal gap between the 1960s and today, the choreographers demonstrate how 'Realness' serves as an important tool for mobilizing understanding about social responses to non-normative bodies. This includes addressing the need to provide a safe space, the concept of belonging, and the practice of passing and its implicit normativity and intelligibility. These recent concepts have been the subject of in-depth study within queer and trans theory⁹.

In conclusion, the hybridization of registers and styles and the exploration of temporal gaps in Mimosa offer an opportunity to collectively reimagine historical impossibilities, to create new possibilities and new ways of thinking in the contemporary world. While acknowledging the role of subcultural influences in shaping legacies and challenging contemporary dominant cultural processes of normalization, the choreographers emphasize the importance of maintaining a critical stance towards the integration of queer identities into neoliberal society. This entails fostering critical thinking towards dominant societal norms and resisting the conformism to which subjectivities are always subjected. Furthermore, the choreographers recognize the legacy promoted by subaltern cultures, which extends beyond the dominant culture and is acknowledged as a privileged space for challenging the taxonomy of gender norms. The choreographers' aesthetic inquiry evolves into a profoundly political issue, to underscore how certain subjectivities and corporealities remain marginalized economically, socially, and culturally within the dominant white andro-hetero-sexual society. Mimosa seeks to draw attention to these issues and foster ongoing reflection on how theatre and performance can problematize the representation and recognition of non-normative corporealities.

Notes

• 1
  In the 1960s, the Judson Church was a vibrant hub composed of a Dance Theater, Poets' Theater, and Gallery.
• 2
  Judson Dance Theater began its experience as a workshop group, over time it expanded to encompass the social and artistic networks that influenced the original workshop participants. Banes argues that Postmodern Dance came to include individuals who attended Dunn's class but never appeared at Judson, as well as artists like Meredith Monk, Phoebe Neville, and Kenneth King, who began performing at Judson Church after the initial workshop disbanded. In its early years, choreographers such as Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, Ruth Emerson, Fred Herko, Elizabeth Keen, David Gordon, Lucinda Childs, Judith Dunn, Sally Gross, Trisha Brown, and Elaine Summers collaborated with musicians like John Herbert McDowell, Philip Corner, Malcolm Goldstein, and James Tenney, as well as visual artists like Carolee Schneemann, Robert Rauschenberg, Alex Hay, and Robert Morris.
• 3
  No to spectacle. No to virtuosity. No to transformations and magic and makebelieve. No to virtuosity. No to transformations and magic and make-believe. No to the glamour and transcendency of the star image. No to the heroic. No to the anti-heroic. No to trash imagery. No to involvement of performer or spectator. No to style. No to camp. No to seduction of spectator by the wiles of the performer. No to eccentricity. No to moving or being moved.
• 4
  The dance competition intensifies over time and can last for 10 hours. The jury is often composed of Fathers and Mothers of the House. The dance competition is divided into several categories: “Best Realness”, which means real woman, and “Best Model”, the one who distinguishes herself by the most glamorous dress. All these forms are strictly codified, even in the movements and gestures to be performed. To not be disqualified during a competition, one must perform all the choreography accurately, without any mistakes.
• 5
  Hoarau reports the definitions as follows: Women: Cisgender women, including feminine lesbians and straight women; Men: Cisgender straight men or those not identifying as gay. Butch Queens: Biologically born males (cis-men) who identify as gay or bisexual, with a gender expression that can be masculine, hypermasculine, or feminine. Butch Queens Up in Drag: Gay cis-men who perform and compete in drag but do not live as women. Butches: Female-to-male transgender individuals (transgender men) at different stages of gender reassignment, as well as masculine lesbians, masculine straight women, or females presenting as male. Femme Queens: Male-to-female transgender individuals (transgender women) at various stages of gender reassignment.
• 6
  The description of the performance was made possible by footage provided by the authors and production company.
• 7
  In particular, for Foucault, dispositive (or apparatuses) are the set of discursive and practical techniques of management and governance, in which certain elements, such as schools or prisons, are able to strategically control, direct, and contain the behavior of individuals. For Foucault, sexuality is a device of pow er, meaning a complex mechanism of linguistic, religious, moral and scientific laws and norms that are applied to the individual, influencing their relationships with others and with themselves.
• 8
  I refer here to Susan Stryker's definition of transvestite as an old word, coined in 1910 by the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld. For Hirschfeld, “transvestites” were one of many different types of “sexual intermediaries,” including homosexuals and hermaphrodites, who occupied a spectrum between “pure male” and “pure female.” Initially, this term was used in much the way that “transgender” is used now, to convey the sense of a wide range of gendervariant identities and behaviors. During the course of the last century, however, to the extent that it has not fallen entirely out of favor, it refers primarily to people who wear gender atypical clothing but do not engage in other kinds of body modification. It usually refers to men rather than women and usually carries with it the association of cross-dressing for erotic pleasure (Stryker, 2008).
• 9
  A list of authors can never be complete; however, to cite just a few: Judith Butler, Leslie Feinberg, Sandy Stone, Susan Stryker, Dean Spade, and Jay Prosser.

Research data availability:

the dataset that supports the results of this study is published in the article itself.

This original paper is also published in Portuguese in this issue of the journal.

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• Editor in charge: Patrick Campbell

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Feb 2025
• Date of issue
  2025

History

• Received
  28 Dec 2023
• Accepted
  08 July 2024