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.