Gender choreographies and subversive practices: notes on non-binarity and dance improvisation

Abstract

This article approaches cisnormativity through the concept of choreography, understood as a logic for organizing bodies and subjectivities. Drawing on Judith Butler’s contributions to gender performativity and articulating them with contemporary discussions in the field of dance, it proposes understanding cisnormativity as a choreographic social regime that produces intelligible genders through normative reiteration. Grounded in the epistemology of Practice as Research and bringing together experiences of dance improvisation and lived non-binarity, the article approaches improvisation and non-binarity as practices that subvert this order. Finally, it argues that the notion of choreography can materially describe the normative processes through which gender is produced, highlighting the analytical potential of dance practices for understanding the contemporary constitution of subjectivities.