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David Gere, who came of age as a dance critic at the height of the AIDS epidemic, offers the first book to examine in depth the interplay of AIDS and choreography in the United States, specifically in relation to gay men. The time he writes about is one of extremes. A life-threatening medical syndrome is spreading, its transmission linked to sex. Blame is settling on gay men. What is possible in such a highly charged moment, when art and politics coincide? Gere expands the definition of choreography to analyze not only theatrical dances but also the protests conceived by ACT-UP and the NAMES Project AIDS quilt. These exist on a continuum in which dance, protest, and wrenching emotional expression have become essentially indistinguishable. Gere offers a portrait of gay male choreographers struggling to cope with AIDS and its meanings.
E-Book Content
How to Make Dances in an Epidemic
How to Make Dances in an Epidemic Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS
David Gere
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U n i v e r s i t y
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The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street Madison, Wisconsin 53711 www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/ 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England Copyright © 2004 David Gere All rights reserved 5
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gere, David. How to make dances in an epidemic: tracking choreography in the age of AIDS / David Gere. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-299-20080-9 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-299-20084-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Homosexuality in dance. 2. Homosexuality and dance—United States. 3. Dance—Social aspects—United States. 4. Dance criticism—United States. I. Title. GV1588.6.G47 2004 306.4´84—dc22 2004005184
Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for inclusion in the eBook.
For Peter Carley and for my ghosts: Joah Lowe (1953–1988) Stephen Cobbett Steinberg (1949–1991) Bill Huck (1947–1992)
Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments
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Introduction
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Blood and Sweat
39
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Melancholia and Fetishes
91
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Monuments and Insurgencies
139
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Corpses and Ghosts
187
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Transcendence and Eroticism
229
Epilogue
263
Notes Bibliography Index
269 312 333
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Illustrations John Bernd and Tim Miller in Live Boys, 1981 Sylvain Lafortune and Rick Michalek in Concerto Six Twenty-Two, 1987 Dancers in “Still” of Bill T. Jones’s Still/Here, 1994 John Bernd with blender in Surviving Love and Death, 1982 John Bernd in publicity stills for Surviving Love and Death, 1983 Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, 1987 Keith Hennessy performing Saliva, 1988 Keith Hennessy in Saliva, 1989 Protesters in Sieze Control of the FDA, 1988 A die-in, Seize Control of the FDA, 1988 Protesters at the entrance to the FDA, 1988 Television cameras, Seize Control of the FDA, 1988 Dancing for Our Lives! poster, 1986 Mark Morris and Teri Weksler in One Charming Night, 1986 The artistic directors with the performers of Dancing for Life, 1987 Tracy Rhoades in Requiem, ca. 1988–89 The crown-of-light gesture from Tracy Rhoades’s Requiem, ca. 1988–89 Charles Halloran and William Samios transporting Joah Lowe’s ashes, 1998 Arnie Zane and Bill T. Jones in 21 Supported Positions, 1987 ix
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Bill T. Jones with a holographic representation of Arnie Zane in Untitled, 1989 Bill T. Jones in Untitled, quoting movements from Zane’s 1977 Hand Dance, 1989 Bill T. J