Women’s subjectivity in the mirror of non-classical stage dance of 20th and 21st centuries

The article considers how the concept of woman’s subjectivity brought into focus in feminist critics
\nof the 20th century was evoked in non-classical dance of the 20th and 21st centuries. The authors’
\ngoal is to prove that artistic experiences of modern dance, followed by contemporary dance, became
\nthe productive form of woman’s writing, the most fruitful “location” where woman’s subjectivity
\nwas manifested, from the feminist theorists’ point of view. The authors saw their principal task as
\nexamining the history of the interest that outstanding choreographers of the 20th century developed
\nin seeking woman’s subjectivity “buried” in the body. The methodological frameworks integrated
\nhistorical and typological, philosophical, culturological, deconstructive, and gender analyses. The
\narticle distinguishes several major trends, they are: the Delsarte’s American studies of expressive
\nbody acting of the suffragist epoch (Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Mod Allan), German expressionist
\ndance, American modern dance and the Russian rhythmic and plastic dance of the first half of the
\n20th century (Marie Wiegmann, Martha Graham); the European Dance Theatre movement of the
\n1970s, that was the period of the second wave of feminism (Pina Bausch). It is stated that at the
\nclose of the 20th century and the early 21st century the brightest examples of the discussed theme are
\nthe artistic works deconstructing the concept of “woman’s subjectivity”. The analysis of the world
\nfamous performance “Co(te)lette” made by Anna van den Broek, a Dutch choreographer, presents a
\nclear illustration of this observation. Then, using the example of creative works by Marie Chouinard
\n(Canada), Mats Ek (Sweden), Matthew Bourne (Great Britain), the authors show how the plastic
\ndiscourse of contemporary dance is gradually transferred from the area of feminist rhetoric to the
\nfield studying various gender perversions. In conclusion, as the authors stance, the example of Ivo
\nDimchev performances demonstrates that in contemporary dance the theme of woman’s subjectivity
\nblurs and the attention focuses on the man with “strange’ (queer) gender identity, with floating
\nunstable uncertain feeling of belonging to being. Refs 19.

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