"Ageism and the Mature Dancer" 2014 (original) (raw)
Related papers
2014
Current research indicates there is an increasing interest in the mature dancer. This paper investigates ageism and longevity of performance in today's contemporary ballet culture. It seeks to explore perceived taboos in and around the question of retirement. For generations, dance has been a discriminatory industry, dominated by the idea that forty is the age to retire, irrespective of gender or physicality. This Western cultural norm has engendered prejudice towards the physicality of mature dancers' bodies, disregarding a lifetime of embodied dance experience. Today's focus on a youth-orientated consumer culture weighs heavily in the current dance world and for some who are approaching forty, retirement is perceived as the legitimate choice. Should this still be the case? Which is the preferred or appropriate body to perform, the youthful or the mature? To answer these questions, this paper refers to interviews with male and female mature dancers, reviews of performances along with personal experience and documentation as a mature dancer. I discuss perceptions of the youthful as opposed to the 'other' and contextualise this through case studies of prominent dancers in the field who continue to engage through performance. Investigation of the dancer's performative value as a mature practitioner and their corporeal value will be a focal point. Through interviews with mature dancers, my research indicates how the mind/body flux is inherent because of maturity, which could be construed as a new emotive and physical quality that can only occur because of ageing. The findings in the research indicate there is a deep-vested interest in the lived body experience of mature dancers, their worth to Western contemporary dance culture, their peers and their corporeal value.
Ageism and the Mature Dancer (thesis)
2020
This research questions the taboo issue of ageing and its relationship to the early retirement of professional dancers in western dance culture. My personal experience as a dancer informs this research which examines the contribution that older, experienced dancers (OEDs) make to current dialogues relating to performance and ageism in the field of dance. The dancers within this study have chosen to extend their careers beyond the western ballet and contemporary dance industries’ expectations of an acceptable age to perform. They endeavour to retain visibility despite entrenched discrimination, which begins at around the age of thirty-five, curtailing careers before they have had the opportunity to mature. Thus, I observe from a European-Australian standpoint the endemic ageism and lack of recognition these under-represented dancers within western dance culture endure. To meet the aims of the research, an interdisciplinary and practice-led approach has been employed to investigate da...
Not With My Body Ya Don't! Ageing Dancers and the Habitus Turn. TaPRA 2013 conference paper.
The catalyst for undertaking this research into ageing performers does not come from academic reasoning and discourse, but from Edward’s journey as a performing subject with a personal experience in dance, choreography, performance and cabaret. This compliments Newall’s work on the documentation of the moving body in performance. With a focus on second and third age perspectives, we question the negotiation and renegotiation of ageing within western contemporary dance. The subjective nature of this paper arises from twenty years of personal performance histories. The writing thus moves away from the depersonalised third person of academic script and into the more personal narrative of a heuristic methodology of self reflexive research which concerns itself with observations of practice and engagement of self/people. We challenge longer standing conservative and tacit traditional notions of what constitutes best performance practice and technically embodied techniques. Such forms of dance ultimately result in a reconceptualising and reconciling as the body ages. We explore how engagement with dance needs to be more nurtured and specialised as dancers grow old(er), questioning the relationship between the performer and the performance and by doing so challenging the cultural understandings of performing longevity. The physical and emotional challenges ageing presents dancers can be journeyed and interrogated through a reflexivity and a writing in this work. This includes, but is not limited to: social and cultural diminishing dancing presence, slowly escalating physical disruptions, relational departures of previous dance forms and embodied dance languages becoming increasingly foreign. Key Words: dance, ageing, technique, embodiment, mature mover, experience, documentation, cultural representation
Exploring the Phenomenon of Ageing in Dance through Personal Perspective
This paper aims to research and identify any preconceived notions of ageing in dance. Ageing is inevitable and a phenomenon unique to each individual. The following examines previous literature on this subject, analyzes data collected from several bay area dancers, and explains what these findings mean. Literature around the topic of ageing in dance has focused on body formation, embodiment of the art form, pain and injury and perception. The purpose of the study is to interpret the individual stories and experiences of eight dancers over the age of 35, five of which were female and three of who were male. Research is collected through the combination of the phenomenological and narrative approach. Personal interviews were conducted with each participant and focused on their life story. Results from the study increase understanding of the personal priorities of ageing dancers, their perspective on gains and losses, their opinion on retirement and their goals for dancing in the future.
Valuing the Older Dancer Through Digital Technology
Createworld , 2015
Today’s focus on a youth-oriented consumer culture also weighs heavily in the current dance world and for some who are approaching forty years of age; retirement is perceived as the legitimate choice. Should this still be the case? Since attending the Elixir Festival at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London 2014 the research indicates there is a renewed interest within the dance world of the value and visibility of the mature dancer, recognising their lived body experience, performativity and inclusion in western dance culture. There has long been prejudice towards the mature dancer but a new shift acknowledging the lifetime of embodied dance experience is slowly being highlighted. Which is the preferred body to perform, the youthful or the mature, or is it inappropriate behaviour of the latter? By investigating through film and photography, from the personal perspective as a mature dancer, I aim to focus on the mature mover and conserve their visibility in the current dance world. Key words: mature dancer, digital technology,
Temporality of the Dancing Body: Tears, Fears and Ageing Dears
Temporality of the Dancing Body: Tears, Fears and Ageing Dears Mark Edward and Dr Helen Newall Abstract This paper examines and highlights the importance of valuing the body as it gravitates towards maturity (or ‘otherness’) refuting the myth that people do not or should not dance as they get older. It offers, as context, some of the common cultural myths of the ageing and injured dancer, and examines the career reality. It interrogates the shift from performance into dance creation of the ageing performer, and the prejudices that surround this process. Whilst ballet, as a dance form, will always remain subject to the authoritarianism of perfect technique, this paper suggests that issues in dance and the ageing body, physical scarring, psycho physical scarring and embodied knowledge are being addressed in the wider dance community, which appears at last to be moving on considerably in its appreciation of the mature mover and embodied arts practice. The paper uses as case studies, two practice-as-research projects which examined the cumulative impact of ageing values and practices as experienced across the trajectories of individual life-courses of performers, paying particular attention to dimensions of lived experience, physical and emotional pain and migrating selves. These projects also explored the subversion of notions which discriminate against the ageing dancing body, and highlighted and celebrated work which evolves with the ageing performer through somatic practice, valuing the lived process and the body as a phenomenological breathing Curriculum Vitae. The subjective nature of this paper arises out of reflexive research which is less scientific and more concerned with observations of a practice which exposes and explores, rather than sanitises, issues like emotion, pain, biography, embodiment and sensitivity. Key Words: Dance, technique, pain, injury, ageing, retirement, experience, embodiment, practice-as-research.
Women's Work Musings on the older professional female dancer, LONG VERSION
Critical Path, 2020
The current Western dance world perpetuates the idea that it is an artform for only the “young and beautiful.”1 Dancers who wish to continue performing after a certain age have to fight for the opportunity to remain visible, particularly female dancers. Why is society challenged by the image of a female dancer of a certain age, whose form was once regarded and admired?2 For the older woman or dancer, the association of supposed lessening sensuality and closeness of mortality may seem inevitable. Invisibility and disregard of life experience shriek disenfranchisement, and new questions need to be asked as to how this wealth of embodied dance experience can be acknowledged, with audiences looking beyond ageing. The dance-by-date so adhered to in Western dance requires debate from within in order to bring about change, to broaden these aesthetic boundaries, and to recognise the creativity these female dancers embody.
DELVING INTO DANCE Widening the Boundaries
Delving into Dance, 2020
This article is based on information I gathered during my doctoral research, which focused on professional dancers aged over 40 who are still performing. 1 I cite from interviews I have undertaken with dancers based nationally and internationally who initially responded to a survey I sent them regarding ageism and endurance in performance. My aim is to bring attention to their situation, and to give recognition to their craft and longevity. My research has shown that some-but not all-feel side-lined, with few opportunities given to perform; hence, they feel invisible. This marginalisation has caused discord among the cohort, leading them to feel that dance programmers do not know how or want to schedule them, thus depriving audiences of this unrepresented demographic. The dance by-date 2 clung to throughout much of Western dance necessitates change from within, a need to widen the boundaries in place, and to recognise the lived experience these dancers embody. After all, they are a "phenomenological breathing Curriculum Vitae", "a dance archive". 3 Giving mature dancers more performance opportunities allows for more diversification in the dance industry as well as a better representation of an older demographic in society. While the USA has a long tradition of honouring and keeping visible its senior dance artists, in Europe and most of Australia the appreciation and visibility of older professional dancers is still slow to be realised.
Deconstructing Contemporary Dance Discourses by Acknowledging Elderly Female Bodies
Nordic Journal of Dance
This article uses a choreographic project to discuss the relationship between elderly women and contemporary dance. It focuses on how participating in the project is of artistic value to these women and what happens in the meeting between me as a master’s student and researcher, the project itself and the women. The article is based on a master’s project in dance pedagogy aimed at using action to change normative ideas about a dancer’s body. The artistic practice is based on the women’s lived experiences. Through improvisation and with a somatic approach as a choreographic performative practice, collaborative transformative learning emerged from the participants. By articulating and visualising the experiences of elderly women as a marginalised group, the meaning of the concepts of dance, body, and age was deconstructed and new insights were gained to challenge and broaden normative ideas about dance and the dancer’s body. The discoveries presented in this article show that elderly ...