—Dancing Gender Trouble from the Dancing Text series, 2013-ongoing

Recordings of live performances, videos

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Dancing Gender Trouble proposes the planning and elaboration of a collective performance that will be the product of giving physical form to the contents of this iconic book by Judith Butler. The action seeks to link performance as a feminist artistic practice from the 60s and 70s with the gender performativity theory introduced by Butler. The development of performance practices brought about a change of paradigm in visual arts that led its dematerialization, turning the gaze towards the audiences and highlighting the ephemeral and contingent character of reception processes. Butler for her part also analyzed and showed the contingent character of gender assignation, deconstructing the essentialist fundaments on which heteronormative societies rely and evidencing the subtle mechanisms through which individual psyches are controlled.
Texts can be questioned, interpellated by performative action, and it is possible to extract meanings from them that can be hardly expressed by words, maybe because it is other senses that come into play. In this context, it is interesting to employ a controversial text as a conceptual score. As in other previous works, this proposal has a processing dynamics that implies searching for participants to collaborate in this choreography without the expected music, since music would be the words. Participants do not need to be experienced dancers or performers, since working with amateur or inexperienced collaborators strengthens an undisciplined approach. Using a developing structure similar to a workshop, the planning of a free dance is prepared with the performers for several days, during which the text is studied and the fragments to be danced selected. The result is performed in public and recorded.
Dancing Gender Trouble has already been activated in Santiago de Chile, Mexico City, and Madrid. Dancing the text in different places and cities, allows to explore a variety of interpretations and approaches.

 

Dancing Gender Trouble #1 (Santiago de Chile), live performance presented on October 18th 2013 at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Santiago de Chile). Performers: María José Cuello, Kaliuska Santibáñez, Sebastián Andrés Calfuqueo Aliste, Marjorie Carvajal San Martín, Magdalena Yolin, Alejandra Sepúlveda Velásquez, Carolina Paz Muñoz Contreras, Daniela Torreblanca, Poli Mujica, Jessica Valladares, Carla Cristina Garcia, Karine Freitas Sousa, Daniela Lara, Rodrigo Ignacio Cortés, Fernanda López Quilodran, Paulina Flores Peñaloza, Loreto Sapiain, Paula Palacios, Laura Rodriguez.
Dancing Gender Trouble #2 (Mexico City), live performance presented on January 21st 2014 at CCEMX (Mexico City). Performers: Joyce Jandette, Amor Teresa, Griselda Jiménez Juárez, Uriel Isaac Palma Torres, Víctor García, Ana Patricia Valle Rogel, Izamara Jurado González, Jerry Shaw, Mayte Guadalupe Benítez Rodríguez, Brenda Yadira Hernández Miranda, Pw, Elizabeth Del Pino, Florencia Mercado Vivanco, Lilleam Peñaloza Nolasco, Ana Martínez de Fabricio R. García, Alejandra Espino del Castillo, Gabriela Domínguez Cerón, Diana Marina Neri Arriaga, La Bala.
Dancing Gender Trouble #3 (Madrid), live performance presented on June 27th 2015 at Sala El Águila (Madrid). Performers: Beatriu Codonyer, Olga Diego, Lorena Fdez. Prieto, Francisco J. Martínez Vélez, Daniel Sánchez Martínez, Gustavo Nieves Plaza, Yolanda Franco, Almudena Mora, Alba Morales, Verónica Ortega, Santi Ruiz, María Tolmos, Paz Die, María Gimeno, Semíramis González, Laura Hdez. Arias, Luisa Fernanda Lindo, Gloria Oyarzabal, Mercedes Peña, Davinia V. Reina.