After leaving oxygen, and striding past late night revellers, with our bad attitudes (following our week 5 experience) and tequilla slammers keeping us warm we find a bus we think is going in the right direction to our desired destination. well it wasn't exactly but we did end up in the general area . and got in a taxi to finish our journey. We pay the fare and jump out walking under the railway bridge to the club. By now its past 2 am and as we hang up our coats, take another tequilla slammer and we feel our sleves change as the club starts to warm up.
But as Jackson notes the everyday habitus is not so easy to escape. Another tequila slammer and we try to shake of our 'civilised bodies' (Elias) discontented with the patriarchal world we experienced in oxygen we were seeking to find the opposite in our new location - a club called Fire, which had a repuation for being a wild night out. We were looking for the carnal and seeking out passion, which we began to tune into, as we listened to the bass reverberating in our chests. With the boom boom boom of the music we pushed our earlier experiences out of our minds and into our chest, with the next boom we pushed them out of our chests and into our arms, into our hands and 'boom' out into the atmosphere as we punched the air above our heads. With each boom we pulsed more until our whole bodies became one with the music as we transgressed into an experiential state of being. We didn't think about how to move we felt it. We let the music guide as as our bodies became slaves to its highs and lows. We transgressed or went beyond the boundaries of our everyday. We had no idea what we looked like but we knew how we felt. We had no telos or end goal and we knew the music wouldn't stop, tracks would simply merge into each other just like the differences between our selves now and our selves before were not solid or objective but fluid and dynamic.
I have no idea how long we danced. Loosing a sense of time was part of the process of releasing our tension, freeing oursleves and becoming part of the sensual landscape around us. Bodies were learning and feeding into one and other. We were making friends with everybody. Chatting to strangers as we went out for a smoke. Everybody having a good night. No body feeling threatend. We felt a release that had been denied to us a few hours earlier. We ate up this feeling of freedom, exileration, of physical being because we knew in the morning, we would be leaving this hedonism and debauchery. We would be returning to the ascetic, regulated, safe, checked and restrained behaviour we observed during the daylight hours. So we made the most of the few hours we had left.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Sunday, 8 March 2009
week five
do you know what? this week has been crap for dancing! Went to B's dance ensemble of wednesday and the empire on friday night and that was it! And actually this week in both B's class and the empire I didn't 'feel' the dance or the atmosphere or the night as much as i have in previous weeks. Yvonne Daniels says that it is through dancing that we understand the dance. well not this week. My feet may have been moving (and i might have actually danced better in the empire as someone i danced with a couple of weeks ago noted i wasn't holding on to him for dear life anymore ha ha) but i wasn't feeling the music. and i wasn't feeling the dance. am actually sure most of the music wasn't salsa as i couldnt here the beats i'm used to.
But the kinesthetic understanding wasn't there this week. well i'm sure it was since i havn't lost my body but my body might have lost its voice. But thinking about it. The many of the mix of people there were also not 'salsaing' only a few. many of the people i danced with were just freestyling. perhaps i wasn't 'feeling' it this week because nobody else was either. There wasn't the sense of communitas implicit in other nights and in the readings of dance and the dance scene.
So what can i say? are there any theories on dance for when people just aren't in the mood but do it anyway? or to descibe a misfitting audience? or for when dance just doesn't feel like yourself? or for when you dance to keep your friends happy? or for when there's not much option? or when is embarrasing and aukward? or when is just an automatic responce?it must be more than just habitus. but what is it?
But the kinesthetic understanding wasn't there this week. well i'm sure it was since i havn't lost my body but my body might have lost its voice. But thinking about it. The many of the mix of people there were also not 'salsaing' only a few. many of the people i danced with were just freestyling. perhaps i wasn't 'feeling' it this week because nobody else was either. There wasn't the sense of communitas implicit in other nights and in the readings of dance and the dance scene.
So what can i say? are there any theories on dance for when people just aren't in the mood but do it anyway? or to descibe a misfitting audience? or for when dance just doesn't feel like yourself? or for when you dance to keep your friends happy? or for when there's not much option? or when is embarrasing and aukward? or when is just an automatic responce?it must be more than just habitus. but what is it?
week four
Dancing as subordination or emacipation?
Consenting to patriarchial practices or rebelling against them? Self expression or an expression of the system? The body a sight of empowerment or a sight of oppression?
These contradictions will be discussed in relation to last saturday's night of clubbing.
After a long bus / tube journey where disapproving looks were glanced towards our bare legs and high heels me and my friend Carina arrived at picadilly circus. it was nearly one in the morning and the perfect time to start the nights dancing. As we headed central a club promoter appraoched as and promising us discount tickets and club that has something for everyone we headed towards a place called oxygen.
According to Gotfrit pleasure is a key element in structuring the relationships of the individual to the cultural form. The physical delight in dancing allows you to think more than feel. in the club a space is opened up which makes knowing one's self differently possible. There is a sense of daring to be (potentially) bad, stepping out of the 'good girl' territory. For Gotfrit the intersection of desire embodied and sanctioned contibutes to the potential of dancing as a sight of resistence for women. The body is so often a place of oppresstion both within cultural discourse and practise. However in our willingness on the dance floor to take risks and move boldly subverts the self regulation that is oppressive to women in our everyday lives. By embracing our desires and sexuality on the dance floor we can contest dominant notions of sexuality and ignore social conventions. Through dance we can struggle against being tied to identities of self which which subject us to domination.
But what if we can't?
What if inside the club you get harrassed? and hassled? what if the attention which allowed Gotrit her emancipation on the dance floor actually feels threatening? What if you get crowded by groups of men? What if they grid agaisnt you without you inviting them to dance?What if despite to attractive decor and expensive cocktail list the place is actually very sleazy and not welcoming to women unless you very very drunk.
Were the girls inside (of which there were quite a few) actually rebelling against(as Gotfrit was), or consenting to the dominant patriarchial practices of our society? We're they reproducing ideologies, culture and histories that subordinated women or we're they rebelling against them? We're the girls turning away from commoditised images or turning into them?
Either way we left the club.
We complained to the management about the sleazy guys and the crap music.
We got a refund.
We used to refund to pay into a gay club.
We danced all night (and most of the morning)
We made friends with fellow clubbers.
We let our selves go out of control.
We had a brilliant night.
Its just a shame we had to go to a gay club in order to feel freedom and pleasure in our movements, to take risks and defy the social order and to put passion into our dancing.
Consenting to patriarchial practices or rebelling against them? Self expression or an expression of the system? The body a sight of empowerment or a sight of oppression?
These contradictions will be discussed in relation to last saturday's night of clubbing.
After a long bus / tube journey where disapproving looks were glanced towards our bare legs and high heels me and my friend Carina arrived at picadilly circus. it was nearly one in the morning and the perfect time to start the nights dancing. As we headed central a club promoter appraoched as and promising us discount tickets and club that has something for everyone we headed towards a place called oxygen.
According to Gotfrit pleasure is a key element in structuring the relationships of the individual to the cultural form. The physical delight in dancing allows you to think more than feel. in the club a space is opened up which makes knowing one's self differently possible. There is a sense of daring to be (potentially) bad, stepping out of the 'good girl' territory. For Gotfrit the intersection of desire embodied and sanctioned contibutes to the potential of dancing as a sight of resistence for women. The body is so often a place of oppresstion both within cultural discourse and practise. However in our willingness on the dance floor to take risks and move boldly subverts the self regulation that is oppressive to women in our everyday lives. By embracing our desires and sexuality on the dance floor we can contest dominant notions of sexuality and ignore social conventions. Through dance we can struggle against being tied to identities of self which which subject us to domination.
But what if we can't?
What if inside the club you get harrassed? and hassled? what if the attention which allowed Gotrit her emancipation on the dance floor actually feels threatening? What if you get crowded by groups of men? What if they grid agaisnt you without you inviting them to dance?What if despite to attractive decor and expensive cocktail list the place is actually very sleazy and not welcoming to women unless you very very drunk.
Were the girls inside (of which there were quite a few) actually rebelling against(as Gotfrit was), or consenting to the dominant patriarchial practices of our society? We're they reproducing ideologies, culture and histories that subordinated women or we're they rebelling against them? We're the girls turning away from commoditised images or turning into them?
Either way we left the club.
We complained to the management about the sleazy guys and the crap music.
We got a refund.
We used to refund to pay into a gay club.
We danced all night (and most of the morning)
We made friends with fellow clubbers.
We let our selves go out of control.
We had a brilliant night.
Its just a shame we had to go to a gay club in order to feel freedom and pleasure in our movements, to take risks and defy the social order and to put passion into our dancing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)