Date of Award
12-10-2018
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
First Advisor
Tiffany King
Second Advisor
Julia Kubala
Third Advisor
Lia T. Bascomb
Abstract
This project explores how Black lesbian affectivity performed through dance, which includes gestures, comportment, expressions, etc., can provide a utopian framework of political and social organizing against white supremacist heteronormative hegemony. These affective performances create spaces of resistance within modern dance choreographies. These affective moments and performances demonstrate alternative forms of individual and collective existence in both the dance space and daily life. By examining the works of modern dancer Nora Chipaumire and the social justice dance theater ensemble, the Urban Bush Women, this project argues that Chipaumire and Urban Bush women use disidentification, affective performances, queer utopia and shapeshifting, in order to create different social and political realities. Finally, I argue that moments within these performances open themselves to a reading for “Black lesbian affective” performances that reject normative standards of identity.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/12714714
Recommended Citation
Robinson, Shayla K., "Refusals and Re-Creations: Imagining Utopia through Black Lesbian Affect in Modern Dance." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2018.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/12714714