The Happy Housewife Dancer

by Jen Peternel

The music comes to a climax and the elegant female principal leaps into the arms of the strong male principal in one graceful movement. The audience claps politely at what many of them do not realize is the traditional depiction of gender roles in American dance. Why is it that these traditional gender roles exist? What is the reason that most popular ballets are about a young woman becoming married? How have the gender roles and depictions changed in the past fifty years? To explain these questions let's first provide a brief background on American dance.

The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty are ballets that have crossed cultures and times, and are still widely performed. All three of the ballets listed were creations of the Russian Imperial ballet and all three are stories of a very young woman's quest for marriage. As a child I was exposed to The Nutcracker and Swan Lake not only from my dance teachers, but also in my elementary school music class. My first idea of what a marriage should be like and how a woman must fall in love came from watching those ballets. The story of Sleeping Beauty is even more iconic as Walt Disney turned it into an animated movie that is still watched by children and adults alike generations after it was first made.

According to traditional critics, like Banes, in Sleeping Beauty there is a "progression from the self-confident but still tentative young girl to a mature, intelligent, authoritative woman who is not only ready to marry, but to rule the kingdom." (Banes 59) Although Aurora becomes a more confident woman in the ballet she still conforms herself to the typical stereotyped role of an aristocrat lady.

She still behaves decorously, according to the mores of her time and temper. She exhibits strength, intellect, and power, but she is still constructed as the perfect aristocratic woman - feminine and graceful, as well as regal. She can be demure and modest. But much more important to the ballet is her ability to command space and to display precision, strength, balance, and control - in short, authority. These, of course, are the gifts the fairies bestowed her at her christening. In her last variation, Aurora demonstrates her mastery of their skills, performing a combination of the same hand gestures, precise footwork, turns, and advancing/retreating paths set forth by her godmothers in the Prologue. (Banes 59)

Although Aurora is more independent than the other lead female characters of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, she is still a perfect representation of a woman submiting to her place in a male driven society.

The character a woman dancer portrayed changed substantially in the beginning of the twentieth century. Whereas earlier it was rare to see a woman involved in the production in any other way but a dancer, it became more common for a woman to be a choreographer.

The new forms of high-art dancing born on the stages of Europe and the United States during this period reflected the new precariousness of both bourgeois and aristocratic women. It did so in two ways. One was in the sudden, abundant appearance of women on stage not only as dancers, but as choreographers - as the producers, as well as objects, of choreography. The second was in the fact that these women appeared on stage alone. As dancer/ reconstructor Annabelle Gamson has pointed out, 'Women were not only taking center stage; they were taking all of the stage - without any support from men' (Banes 66)

It is apparent that this shift in the portrayal of women was happening at the same time that the First Wave Feminism was taking place in not only the United States, but, also across several European countries. Inspirational women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Bessie Rayner Parkes devoted their time and efforts in the late nineteenth century to what was coined "feminism". While the issue of women's suffrage is the most widely known theme of the First Wave, it was not the only issue.

Women's greatest challenge, however, was not to gain the vote, but to change patriarchal values. Their efforts were based on two assumptions: (1) that a man claiming to be sensitive to what women want must first recognize, as Fuller pointed out that 'Man cannot by right lay even well-meant restrictions on Woman' and (2) that men who are humanists can be persuaded to give up their unfair advantages voluntarily. Their assumptions bring forth an underlying assumption that feminism is both a movement that strives for equal rights for women and an ideology of social transformation who aim is to create a better work for women beyond simple social equity. (Langer 9)

It was not just the art form of dance that experienced this shift. Literature, especially that was published in women's magazines, changed drastically by the second decade of the twentieth century. This excerpt from The Sob-Lady, a short story published in Good Housekeeping in 1915, represents the shift.

"Angela Lake, Bill Ransome's girl, or rather, to be strictly truthful, the girl to whom Bill Ransome wanted to be engaged, but was solemnly betrothed to Literature - to high, noble, puissant Literature, not to the ordinary, everyday proletarian kind of literature that finds its way into current magazines and is greedily devoured by a plebeian public..."(Honey 37)

The American woman who was evolving was a strong, independent, career woman, who did not necessarily need to find a man to find love. Instead, she was able to find love in her career and in herself. Was this not the same basic idea that was being depicted in American dance during this period of time?

However, not every aspect of the new shift that ballet and modern dance took in the early twentieth century was enjoyed or accepted by the mass culture of America. Isadora Duncan, the mother of American modern dance, was extremely unpopular in her own country. As a native of San Francisco, her wayward personality that did not follow the mores of the general population made others feel uneasy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan)

"In addition, Duncan's politics and her moral conduct infuriated American puritans. Though a professed artistic reformer who tried to cleanse dance of excess and phoniness, she gave antiestablishment speeches from the stage and made no secret of her unconventional love life." (Siegal 9)

Moreover, there are no films of Duncan in existence and because of that we are unable to see her work as is, without the baggage of her personal life hanging over it. Truly, Duncan was in fact, the new woman that the first wave of feminists hoped would evolve with their encouragement. Unfortunately, the end of the 1930s saw the end (for a little while at least) of women such as Isadora Duncan.

The progressive era of evolution between gender roles of man and woman were just beginning a several decade long hiatus. Gone was the age of the career woman who loved literature more than she loved the man whom wished she would marry him, it became the age of the housewife who would gave up her personal aspirations to become a mother and a wife.

With Martha Graham, who I perceive as being the culturally accepted form of Isadora Duncan, choreography made a drastic shift as the 1940s and 1950s took place. In the 1920s and the 1930s the women of Graham's choreography often resembled the career women that were featured in the short stories of popular magazines. However, by the 1950s the females were more domesticated. This shift in Graham's choreography was a reflection on both her personal life and the way American culture had changed. (Banes 165) Graham was able to inject the change in American women into one of her more famous dances, Night Journey. However, the message that was perceived by audiences was perhaps not one that went against the grain of the "feminine mystique". This ballet acknowledged women's libidinal desires, even the taboo of having sexual feelings towards their children. However it does not go the full journey, because in the end the message is still conservative. Jocasta's sexual enthusiasm was a mistake because it inevitability signaled her doom.(Banes 167)

The "feminine mystique" had virtually reached every woman in America. With the traditional gender role in place again, ballets and other forms of dances were becoming once again about a woman's quest for marriage and her role as a wife, mother, and moreover, as a domesticated woman. As, Ted Polhemus, argues in his essay, dance, gender, and culture are three intertwined aspects of life.(Thomas 12) Betty Friedan's book, The Feminine Mystique, which first coined the term deals with just housewives and not dancers. While the book was published in the early 1960s, it was written during the 1950s and discusses many of the same ideas that Graham was interpreting in her dances. Friedan's message that the housewife needs to reclaim her former self and become a more independent woman is downplayed by a more conservative, underlying theme. The theme seems to say that finding your former self it permissable, as long as you still have a man who loves you. Her book did hit stands during which the second wave feminist movement and the early postmodern dance movement were starting to blossom.

Was this a coincidence? I think not. Although the events were unconnected, the publication of The Feminine Mystique and the rise of American postmodern dance both participated in a growing consciousness in the 1960s that women had not yet gained full rights and opportunities. Friedan's book - a critique of the stunted opportunities and frustrations of predominantly white middle - class suburban women in the United States - did not call for immediate political action. Rather, it described a social problem, revealing deep dissatisfactions that in less than a decade would rise to a crescendo in a militant women's movement. And although the choreographers of the Judson Dance Theater certainly did not set out to create consciously 'feminist dances' - to claim that would be anachronistic - works by both men and women in a group reveal a protofeminist sensitivity to gender roles. As well, women choreographers of the Judson generation carved out a niche for themselves as artists in a way that even their female predecessors of modern dance had not. (Banes 215)

The new, postmodern dances, which were created, dealt with the complaints and mundane happenings of the typical American housewife. The new choreography of Lucinda Child's Carnation featured a woman, often alone on stage except for several props, going through the daily chores of a housewife. In the process of doing these acts the dancer portrays a woman going through several mental and physiological changes. She becomes overcome by the objects and they seem to her to "rise in revolt. But ultimately she quells the recalcitrant garbage bag, signaling her critique of housework, her resistance to the petty tyranny of domesticity." (Banes 218) Carnation was first produced on stage in 1964 a year after The Feminine Mystique was first placed out onto store shelves. The waves were changing yet again for the women of the United States. Because of the efforts made by the second wave feminists in the 1970s women once again were able to displace themselves from the household and regain their outside lives as career women.

Gender, culture, and dance do not act as separate organisms, but instead, they act as one organism with each part of it influencing, forcing, and shaping the way the organism as a whole grows throughout the years. This statement becomes clearer when we look at the multitude of changes American dance, and the American housewife, have gone through since the early 1900s. However, the next question that is to be raised is what has happened to gender, culture, and dance since the end of the second wave feminist movement?
While there are several main dance troupes and companies throughout the United States, it is the underground, subculture dance genres that are gaining the most popularity with the twenty-something and thirty-something generations. Two main genres, burlesque and the striptease, are becoming as mainstream as going to a night at the ballet was in early 1900s. Watching these types of performances is not longer limited to a guy's night out. Women participate in both the watching and the performing of these dance forms. However, it is still more common for a woman to dance in this type of performance than it is for a man to dance. An alumna, Wendy Marinaccio, at Stanford University has recently linked feminism to dance and the striptease. Marinaccio believes that several of our cultural values; sex, money, desire, and consumption are visible in not only stripping, but also in ballet and other similar performance arts. She also believes that stripping allows women to reverse the role of oppressor and the oppressed and take back control of their bodies and sexuality.(Yoon)While, this description is idealistic about the life of the strip dancer, it does not take other factors into consideration. What about the woman who is forced into stripping because of financial situations, but would rather have a career in another field? The woman who is harassed at work and no longer views her body as her own? Perhaps, taking those questions into consideration, it is easier to say that burlesque is more of a feministic dance form.

"Many performers are working to make a statement and claiming burlesque as part of a new feminism. They argue that by taking control of their acts, their bodies and how much or how little is shown, they are empowering themselves and their female audience." (DiNardo) The new burlesque is about women empowering themselves, without showing their entire body. It is more than just a striptease and often features skits, comedy, and are often about political and women's rights issues. Is this not the same core issues that were raised during second wave and first wave feminism? Also, this genre, is not limiting itself to the stereotypical ideal of what a women looks like. It embraces every women of every shape, color, and size. While I am not saying that these dance forms are replacing the ballet, they are becoming an intrinsic part of American culture and the effects of it are still forming.

It is apparent that the way dance, culture, and gender have changed over the last hundred years has been like a pendulum. Its first big movement happened during the early 1900s, at the same time the first wave feminists gained momentum, then dance and feminism had a cooling point. This cooling point started at the end of the 1930s and lasted until the very beginning of the 1960s. During this era women once again returned the house and dances once again returned to the young girl must get married routine. With the publication of Friedan's book and the new second wave feminist choreographers, both the images of dance and the images of a typical American woman changed. This image is still changing as we are embracing another wave of feminism. One hopes that we do not return to what life was like for a woman in the ages leading up to 1900 nor to the life that led Friedan to be inspired to write her text.

Works Cited Page

Banes, Sally. Dancing Women Female Bodies on Stage. New York City, New York: Routledge, 1998.

DiNardo, Kelly. Burlesque Comeback Tries to Dance With Feminism. <http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2099>

Honey, Maureen. Breaking the Ties that Bind: Popular Stories of the New Woman, 1915-1930. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Publishing Division of the University, 1992.

"Isadora Duncan". <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isadora_Duncan>

Langer, Cassandra L. A Feminist Critique: How Feminism has Changed American Society, Culture, and How We Live From the 1940s to the Present. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1996.

Siegel, Marcia B. The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance. Marcia B. Siegel, 1979.

Thomas, Helen. Dance, Gender, and Culture. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1993.

Yoon, Jin. Alumna links feminism, dance and striptease. <http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2005/5/5/alumnaLinksFeminismDanceAndStriptease>