Markula Pirkko, Metzger Kathy, Bliss Tamara, Gervais Wendy, Rintoul Mary Ann, Vandkerkhove Jodie
Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Front Sports Act Living. 2022 Mar 10;4:795541. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.795541. eCollection 2022.
Professional dancers typically retire before age 40. Although the physical requirements for dance performance are often considered the reason for retirement, there is an increasing number dance researchers who demonstrate that the idealization of youthfulness on the stage is also a result of complex cultural, social, and economic realities and as such, in need of critique. As a group of mature women dancers who continue to perform, we aim to critique the idealization of youthfulness as a form of ageism in professional dance. In this paper, we present findings from our feminist memory-work study in which we critically reflected the rehearsals and performance of a choreography titled "Initiation." We detail three main themes-"It Will Only Get Worse;" "It Can Be Magic;" "Once a Dancer Always a Dancer"-that emerged from our study. We conclude that we gained critical awareness of the gendered and ageist construction of dance as a performing art. As a result, we now feel empowered to continue our work as mature dance artists.
职业舞者通常在40岁之前退休。尽管舞蹈表演对身体的要求常被视为退休的原因，但越来越多的舞蹈研究者表明，舞台上对年轻的理想化也是复杂的文化、社会和经济现实的结果，因此需要受到批判。作为一群仍在继续表演的成熟女性舞者，我们旨在批判将年轻理想化作为职业舞蹈中一种年龄歧视的形式。在本文中，我们展示了我们女性主义记忆工作研究的结果，在该研究中，我们批判性地反思了一部名为《启蒙》的舞蹈编排的排练和表演。我们详细阐述了从我们的研究中出现的三个主要主题——“只会越来越糟”；“可以很神奇”；“一日为舞者，终身是舞者”。我们得出结论，我们对舞蹈作为一门表演艺术的性别化和年龄歧视建构有了批判性认识。因此，我们现在感到有能力继续作为成熟的舞蹈艺术家开展我们的工作。
