Evolution of Femininity in Dance
Through this research paper, I am interested in comparing the excerpts from Giselle, the highly revered Romantic ballet choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, to Bob Fosse’s Cell Block Tango, a jazz piece in the Broadway musical/ Motion Picture of Chicago. Specifically, I am interested in comparing the very different portrayals of women in each dance; shedding light on social, cultural, and political aspects of the time periods from which both works came from. Chicago opened in 1975 but the story takes place in the 1920’s, and Giselle was first presented in 1841. By “portrayal of women,” I am referring to the characters they play with respect to each storyline, the eras that both pieces came from, and the dramatically different ways in which the choreography of either dance calls for very particular gestures and just overall presence within the work. I want to know if femininity, whether it is portrayed in a delicate, weak-hearted form, or in a sensual manner, has a stronger connection with societal changes or if it is simply an aesthetic interpretation. Through my research, I also am striving to determine if there is anything beyond what meets the eye that contributes to the constructions we make as people of the so-called norms of “femininity.” As I explained in my topic proposal, with this question I basically am asking if our opinions as a society are based on what’s going on in our world and the values of our communities, or do we only base our opinions of how women should act on what is advertised to be desirable?
Throughout my research, I have tackled my own thoughts and questions, developed new curiosities, and drawn comparisons of time periods as well as societies connected to these two dances all based around the key word “femininity.” Femininity or effeminacy describes “traits that are often associated with traditional feminine nature, behavior, mannerisms, style, or gender roles; characterized by excessive softness or delicacy” (Dictionary.com).
In order to fully examine the hews of femininity within Giselle and Cell Block Tango, I feel as though I must first briefly discuss both respective time periods that which each of these dances came from/ were set in. In the Romantic Era, “poets, artists, and composers were concerned with the occult and the supernatural; they depicted humankind’s pursuit of the unattainable, exemplified in the hopeless love of a mortal for an unworldly being” (Dixon, Hilsendager, Kraus). With this idea, we see evidence of societal opinions or attractions of entire cultures drawn to a specific desire. The Romantic period allowed people much more freedom for artistic expression, experimentation, and creativity. With this freedom, the people were drawn to depicting ethereal, unworldly creatures throughout art, dance, music, etc. Romanticism, Giselle being of no exception to this ideal, was a time full of attempts to “escape the realities of life as it was” (Dixon, Hilsendager, Kraus). People had been suffering greatly during the wars of the previous time period, and the Industrial Revolution was stirring up even greater hardships for communities throughout Europe. Politically, romanticism offered an escape for suffering people; something to get their minds off of the harsh realities they were facing and step into a fairy tale where they feel a little bit more in control or at ease. As ballet evolved in the Romantic era, it grew to really celebrate the female dancer. “Women’s romantic ballet roles generally did not depict independent women but untouchable, elusive sylphs, or earthy, sexual peasants, though not chattels for male enjoyment” (Hanna). If the women were portrayed as ethereal or not of this world and not independent, yet NOT as objects for the men, I must ask then, why were they portrayed as weak if not for male dominance over them or male enjoyment/ desire of a weak, dependent woman? Was this what the society or culture desired? Weak, helpless women? Offstage throughout the Romantic era, men held the power as choreographers, ballet masters, directors, producers, and theater directors. Onstage, the men were behind the women, lifting them and subtly holding the power as all of the women were portrayed as weak and dependent on them.
The time period in which Bob Fosse’s Chicago was set in was the 1920’s. The 20’s were a time of celebration in which people loved to dance, especially the Charleston, Fox trot, and the shimmy. A lot of landmark accomplishments in our country’s history took place in the 20’s. A couple of these include the popularity of the radio as a source of communication medium, women getting their first vote, the first talking movie (or just movies/ motion pictures in general coming to the forefront of American entertainment), as well as the development of jazz music and its entrance into mainstream culture. With these advancements as a society, especially women’s right to vote (in keeping with my focus on femininity within these two works), this newfound empowerment for women set them at an entirely new level of independence (especially in comparison to the women depicted in Romantic ballets; weak hearted Giselle, etc.). With the growth of the entertainment industry, dancing was growing to be a social medium for all citizens and was closely incorporated in the entertainment industry of the 1920’s.
In the interest of getting the most out of this comparison, I have chosen to compare a ballet Blanc excerpt of Giselle (Giselle as a Willi Grand Pas) to the Cell Block Tango of Chicago. In terms of costuming, the ballet Blanc excerpt of Giselle incorporates the characteristic Romantic, white, filmy skirts hitting just at the calf, with the women on pointe shoes. In Cell Block Tango, women wore fishnet stockings, character shoes, ankle boots, thigh high boots, as well as strappy lingerie, bustiers, and hot pants/ variations of all of the above. The set design for the scene of Giselle as a Willi dancing the Grand Pas takes place in a forest beside Giselle’s grave. The stage is somewhat dark with a forest backdrop and few props to depict the grave. The Willis are all Virgins who have died of ‘unrequited love;’ made up of the corps de ballet so the Willis makeup quite an ensemble on stage with Giselle.
In Cell Block Tango, the set design consists of a smoky prison with 6 women revealing their stories of murdering their husband’s while interacting with a few male dancers periodically through the act as the innocent Roxy Hart (fresh convict on murderess row), stands by watching.
Of course with respect to their different time periods, the two productions have drastically different technical elements/ lack their of (advanced, high technical lighting in Chicago: the Motion Picture, different camera angles being that it was a feature film, where the particular Giselle excerpt I’ve been using is a stage production, etc.).
With connection to femininity and the dancers’ expression of their sensuality or innocence within each work, I feel it necessary to provide a brief a description of the plot of each excerpt of dances. In the Willis act in Giselle, as mentioned earlier, Giselle, a weak-hearted mortal peasant girl, has fallen in love with a prince. Giselle is told that the prince has been deceiving her and is actually engaged to another woman. Giselle loses her mind and dies of a broken heart. In the forest, Willis scene, the Queen of the Willis calls upon them to accept Giselle as one of their own. The Willis basically draw men into their forest and force them to dance until their deaths (almost as payment/revenge for the broken hearts they have suffered). Giselle (now a Willi herself), dances with her prince (Albrecht) in the forest until the Willis’ power is lost and in turn, she saves him.
In Cell Block Tango, the six women provide six different scenarios with their ex, deceased husbands, explaining how and why they committed the crimes they committed; without any guilt or remorse for their actions (“He had it comin’…”-one of their main lines throughout the song in the scene).
I find the plots of these two excerpts to be an interesting parallel/ difference in power and love between stories. Within each story line, we see depictions of women (or ghosts of women) who have dealt with hard relationships in their pasts and are bitterly taking their anger out on the men in their lives or other men they are haunting / watching over in their afterlives (Willis). Of course there are differences in the portrayals of the women in terms of personality and overall carriage as we see Giselle as this weak hearted, subdued woman and the sensual, in your face attitudes of the women in Cell Block Tango.
The expression of sensuality v. innocence in either works was very evident in the incorporation of gestured movements, as I’ve observed through extensively watching video of both dances. In Giselle, we see evidence of the Romantic gestures infused as reactions to other characters (men in particular). The women act coy and shy while reacting to the presence of the male dancers in a dainty fashion. Also, the choreography, though delicate and infused with a lot of character dancing in keeping with the desire to depict ethereal creatures through movement, was very balletic in terms of technique, very lifted, and very linear; had strong characteristics of Romantic ballets (always trying to defy gravity, women en pointe, etc.). To the classical music of Adolphe Adam, the choreography is performed with such poise, grace, and technique. The depiction of the unattainable is definitely achieved in my opinion.
In the Cell Block Tango, the choreography is infused between character acting excerpts and monologues of the women telling their murder stories while partnering different men; interacting through partnering with these male dancers to further their murder stories in a jazzy, sensual way. The choreography altogether is very sensual, incorporating extreme body positions (especially through partnering), snappy battements, the classic steps/ partnering of a tango, deep lunges, positions in turned out as well as parallel, accented walking/ stomping in time with the music, a lot of unison throughout the choruses of the song with the entire ensemble of women murderesses. A lot of the dance sequences that incorporated the entire ensemble were also very linear. I found it interesting however, that within this choreography, there was very little distinctive, classic intricacies of Fosse’s signature choreography. There was a lot of hip usage, as well as use of the derriére. The women had very articulated hand gestures but not necessarily big jazz hands throughout the piece; just very exaggerated hand movements. There is one woman that dances a tango but is clearly a ballet dancer dancing balletic choreography with jazz infused steps (for instance slow controlled battements that she executes then wacks into the air to hit an accent with the music). The most effective part of this dance is the musicality and the chanting coming from each participant. The words are so cleverly written and the choreography punches in such a way that you can feel the sinister, sensual energy of these women as they are up to no good.
Comparing the two excerpts, and specifically comparing the two main characters of the respective scenes, Velma (of Chicago), and Giselle, with the delicacy of Giselle and the raspy conviction of Velma, we see blatant depictions of femininity present in both scenes right off the bat (obviously just portrayed in drastically different ways).
With the evidence of femininity in these two works from completely different time periods, I am able to draw conclusions in relation to my original questions regarding the causes and/or formulations of gender norms within cultures and what may trigger those norms/ definitions of such associations (i.e. social, cultural, political aspects).
“A century ago, American women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their adolescent daughters to do the same; today’s teens shop for thong bikinis on their own, and their middle-class mothers are likely to be uninvolved until the credit card bill arrives in the mail” (Brumberg). Without getting too off topic, with this quote in the book “The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls,” by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, there is a lot of discussion on the body images, overall sexual expression among our youth, and the evolution of such issues as society changes. As evidenced by the above quote, times have changed drastically even when discussing what’s considered to be acceptable clothing for our young girls. This relates to my curiosities on limitations or freedoms/ “unwritten” laws we write as societies (or societies before ours) regarding gender norms or feminine norms (with special attention in the arts and dance).
“From the perspective of history, adolescent self-consciousness is quite persistent, but its level is raised or lowered, like the water level in a pool, by the cultural and social setting” (Brumberg). I believe that self-consciousness among adolescents as well as among adults is indeed raised or lowered by the cultural and social setting, just as I believe now that femininity and the pressures that are attached to it heighten and lower based on cultural and social settings. I feel as though the society and culture with which you are studying has a great deal to do with not only the body image/ the formulation of the desirable or ideal feminine image among the women of that society (whether it be innocent and coy, or sensual and confident, or whatever the depiction may be), but also the manner in which these feminine personas are carried out (whether it be in everyday life or in entertainment/ movies, plays, ballets, etc.). What I mean by this statement is that the society and culture of women in certain scenarios affects the way that they perform or portray their femininity; in Victorian times, women wore corsets and stayed for the most part covered up and that was considered feminine and desirable, in the 20’s, women had more power and respect as an independent gender, and in turn were more comfortable flaunting their sensuality and portraying “take charge” attitudes. By nature of the late-twentieth-21st century, American women are made aware of the “facts of life” at considerably younger ages than they were in the 18th or 19th centuries. This early knowledge in young women’s lives creates the recognition of sexual desires as legitimate needs for young women (something that used to be such a taboo topic regarding young ladies). “Clearly, our society has come a long way in terms of recognizing that virginity is not the highest value in womanhood, and that modern girls-like adult women-have legitimate sexual desires that need an outlet. This transformation in thinking about female sexuality is one of the most important stories in the history of American women, but it is rarely told in terms of its consequence for young girls, or for how they live” (Brumberg). My purpose in providing this information is to show the obvious growth in society and culture and the expansion of sexual expression especially among women. Through this research, I absolutely believe that femininity and the norms generally associated with it evolve and change with the changing times of societies in terms of politics, and culture. Through time, women have gained more power, and therefore have discovered and continue to discover their own freedom in terms of sexual expression and their own interpretations of their sexuality as well as their sexuality in terms of femininity and their portrayal of that specifically though dance. Choreography evolves with this growing discovery amongst women as through time, our culture is becoming more and more uninhibited.
Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot would probably be stunned and/ or disgusted by the sensual movement and powerful attack of the women in Cell Block Tango. The constructions of femininity we make as a society are of course triggered by ‘what meets the eye’ or aesthetics initially, however, I truly believe that the construction of such definitions or gender norms originates from the continuous evolution of societal values, discoveries, and expansions among artistic expressions, experimentalism, and growth. The advertisements and emphasis we assign to the allure of what we consider to be “desirable,” is relative to specific societies and cultures, is directly affected by what’s going on in our world/ communities, and absolutely affects our entertainment and what we see in terms of dance and choreography.
WORKS CITED
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project: an Intimate History of American Girls.
New York: Random House, 1997. Print.
Hanna, Judith Lynne. Dance, Sex and Gender: Signs of Identity,
Dominance, Defiance, and Desire. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988. Print.
Kraus, Richard G., Sarah Chapman. Hilsendager, and Brenda Dixon. Gottschild. History of the Dance in Art and Education. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1991. Print.
McWaters, Debra. The Fosse Style. Gainesville: University of Florida, 2008. Print.
Miramax Motion Picture: Chicago 2002.
Verdy, Violette, Ann ,. Sperber, Théophile Gautier, and Marcia Brown. Giselle: a Role for a Lifetime : with the Text of the Ballet Scenario Adapted from Théophile Gautier. New York: M. Dekker, 1977. Print.
Youtube videos of Giselle and Cell Block Tango