Dance
One of the most important aspects of LGBT+ culture is joy, and that means ensuring there are moments where you can let go and enjoy yourself. Dancing is one way to do that - watch any Pride parade or visit any gay club and you’ll see how well LGBT+ people do it. And when we’re not inventing new ways to move, we’re taking old art forms and reinventing them in our image.
Voguing
Voguing is a part of ballroom culture that became wildly famous thanks to artists like Madonna co-opting dance moves. Ballroom culture is still a major part of LGBT+ culture today, and people from as far away as Mexico City, São Paulo, Santiago, New York, Paris, and Berlin find family and community in the ballroom scene.
The iconic documentary Paris is Burning explored ballroom culture in 1980s NYC, with the documentary Kiki more recently exploring the same in 2016. The ballroom scene was born in Harlem in black and Latinx communities, by those who had been kicked out of their homes and families. Denied space and recognition in the white drag scene, together they formed houses and became each other’s support and family. Today, in Paris, that spirit lives on:
Many gay, black and Arab youths — especially those from Paris' less affluent and religiously conservative suburbs — see Vogue dance events as safe places in which their racial and sexual identities can be fully expressed without fear of reprisals.
Disco
Okay, so disco is more of a music genre than dance - but what is disco without dancing?!
In the 70s, disco was one of the most LGBT+-friendly genres of music. Disco was primarily black, Latinx, and gay, which is why it faced such a backlash from white rock fans - so much so that lesbian icon Bruce Springsteen wrote a song for Donna Summer to stand in solidarity against racism.
Ballet
Because of its centuries-old history and reputation as ‘high culture’, ballet is often thought of as immutable and somewhat stuck in the past. But because of LGBT+ innovation, ballet is opening up to new ways of being performed that pushes the dance forward. From Chase Johnsey, a genderqueer ballerina who dances traditionally female roles with the English National Ballet, to dance company Ballez, outdated notions of who can perform which roles - and with whom - are changing.
Khmer Traditional Dance
Khmer dance has been traditionally performed by women and holds a special place in Cambodian culture, especially after the genocide in Cambodia threatened its very existence. Prumsodun Ok formed the first gay dance company in Cambodia in the belief that it was his responsibility to preserve the art form, at to do so by expanding upon it and letting it evolve. In his Ted Talk, Ok said:
“ I am Khmer, and I am American. I am the child of refugees, a creator, a healer, and a builder of bridges. I am my teacher’s first male student in a tradition understood by many as female, and I founded Cambodia’s first gay dance company. I am the incarnation of the beauty, dreams and power of those who came before me. The convergence of past, present and future, and of individual and collective.
Let me then play that ancient and ageless role of the artist as messenger, by sharing the words of Chheng Phon “A garden with only one type of flower, or flowers of only one color, is no good.” This is a reminder that our strength, growth, survival and very existence, lies in diversity. It is, however, a message of courage as well. For a flower does not ask for anyone’s permission to bloom. It was born to offer itself to the world. Fearless love is its nature. ”
Native American Dance
Adrian Stevens (of the Northern Ute, Shoshone-Bannock and San Carlos Apache tribes) and Sean Snyder (of the Navajo Nation and Southern Ute tribes) began dancing together in 2009 after meeting at a pow wow. They now perform in the couple’s category together with overwhelming acceptance, and they are not alone in using dance to reaffirm their LGBT2S+ identities: Ty DeFoe also uses dance to celebrate that they are two-spirit.