Hybrid choreographic femininities: DanceSport, physical culture, and performative corporeality in contemporary China

Abstract

ABSTRACT The integration of conventional Western styles and Chinese (physical) cultural elements has become an increasingly utilised choreographic trend in Chinese DanceSport. In major competitions and televised events, choreographers have sought to create distinctive performance-based identities and practices that at once adhere to Western stylistic and competitive conventions but also incorporate traditional Chinese physical and cultural aesthetics. In this study, we draw from Foucault’s theorisations of power and knowledge and disciplinary techniques to offer a dispositive analysis of the bodily performances of Chinese female DanceSport dancers – specifically analysing 19 prized dance pieces in two national competitions. Through the analysis of discursive, non-discursive, and material choreographic elements, we seek to examine how the bodies of Chinese female dancers interact with multiple forms of Western DanceSport and Chinese socio-cultural and political power/knowledge. We conclude that Chinese female dancing bodies are subject to the anatomical knowledge regarding the physical execution of Western technical skills as well as adhering to the norms of Western feminine aesthetics. However, our analysis illustrates how Chinese female dancers strategically utilise Western dance movements and techniques to navigate and potentially negotiate with traditional Chinese norms. Yet, these practices may still function within an anatomopolitical framework of female dancing bodies that is shaped through the promotion of Chinese national identity by the state.