How to make dances in an epidemic: tracking choreography in the age of AIDS 9780299200848, 9780299200800, 9780299200831

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Illustrations (page ix)
Acknowledgments (page xi)
Introduction (page 3)
1 Blood and Sweat (page 39)
2 Melancholia and Fetishes (page 91)
3 Monuments and Insurgencies (page 139)
4 Corpses and Ghosts (page 187)
5 Transcendence and Eroticism (page 229)
Epilogue (page 263)
Notes (page 269)
Bibliography (page 312)
Index (page 333)

Citation preview

How to Make Dances in an Epidemic

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How to Make Dances in an Epidemic Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS

David Gere

The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street Madison, Wisconsin 53711

www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress / 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England Copyright © 2004 David Gere All rights reserved

54321 Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gere, David. How to make dances in an epidemic: tracking choreography in the age of AIDS / David Gere.

p- cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-299-20080-9 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-299-20084-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Homosexuality in dance. 2. Homosexuality and dance— United States. 3. Dance—Social aspects— United States. 4. Dance criticism— United States. I. Title.

GV1588.6.G47 2004 306.4°84—dc22 2004005184

For

Peter Carley and for my ghosts:

Joah Lowe (1953-1988) Stephen Cobbett Steinberg (1949-1991) Bill Huck (1947-1992)

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Contents

Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 3 1 Blood and Sweat 39

2 Melancholia and Fetishes g1

3 Monuments and Insurgencies 139

4 Corpses and Ghosts 187

Epilogue 263 Notes 269

5 Transcendence and Eroticism 229

Index 333

Bibliography 312

Vil

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[lustrations John Bernd and Tim Miller in Live Boys, 1981 2 Sylvain Lafortune and Rick Michalek in Concerto

Six Twenty-Two, 1987 18 Dancers in “Still” of Bill T. Jones’s Still/Here, 1994 22

Death, 1982 32 Death, 1983 36 Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, 1987 38

John Bernd with blender in Surviving Love and

John Bernd in publicity stills for Surviving Love and

Keith Hennessy performing Saliva, 1988 57

Keith Hennessy in Saliva, 1989 59

Protesters in Sieze Control of the FDA, 1988 64

A die-in, Seize Control of the FDA, 1988 69 Protesters at the entrance to the FDA, 1988 71

Television cameras, Seize Control of the FDA, 1988 73

Dancing for Our Lives! poster, 1986 80

Night, 1986 82

Mark Morris and Teri Weksler in One Charming

for Life, 1987 88 Tracy Rhoades in Requiem, ca. 1988-89 gO The artistic directors with the performers of Dancing The crown-of-light gesture from Tracy Rhoades’s

Requiem, ca. 1988-89 95 Charles Halloran and William Samios transporting Joah Lowe’s ashes, 1998 113

Positions, 1987 125

Arnie Zane and Bill T. Jones in 21 Supported 1x

Xx Illustrations Bill T. Jones with a holographic representation of

Arnie Zane in Untitled, 1989 127

Bill T. Jones in Untitled, quoting movements from

Zane’s 1977 Hand Dance, 1989 129

Bill T. Jones in Untitled, beating his chest, 1989 136

The NAMES Project AIDS Quilt, 1996 138

Frankenstein, 1991 149 High Risk Group in the prologue to Falling, 1991 155 Mourners carrying Jon Greenberg’s casket, 1993 164 Jon Greenberg, 1993 165 Richard Board in Rick Darnell’s Brides of

AIDS Quilt, 1996 171 Volunteers unfolding a section of the AIDS Quilt 172 The unfurling ceremony for the NAMES Project

Rodney Price in Song from an Angel, 1988 186 Rodney Price, transformed, in Song from an Angel, 1988 189

Paul Timothy Diaz in One AIDS Death ..., 1993 201 Paul Timothy Diaz in One AIDS Death ..., 1990 205

Room, 1990 207

Joe Goode Performance Group in The Reconditioning

Liz Carpenter, Wayne Hazzard, Joe Goode, and

Liz Burritt in Remembering the Pool... ,1991 214

the Pool...,41990 215 the Pool... ,1990 219 The final scene of Longtime Companion, 1990 228 Liz Burritt and Joe Goode, in Remembering

Wayne Hazzard and Liz Carpenter in Remembering

David Rousséve in Colored Children Flyin’ By, 1990 233 Paul Matteson, Lionel Popkin, and Keith Johnson in

Study for a Resurrection, 1997 235

Arthur Aviles, Demian Acquavella, Sean Curran, and

Heidi Latsky in The Gift / No God Logic, 1987 236 The erotic massage in Sanctuary: Ramona and the Wolfgang

Work for a Cure, 1993 251 Felipe Barrueto Cabello and Vong Phrommala with Joe Goode in Deeply There, 1998 262

Julie Tolentino and Ilaan Egeland in Love Songs, 1998 266

Acknowledgments Given that my work on this book has spanned nearly my entire adult life—a scary realization—it is no wonder that I have so many people to thank. I'd like to start with the San Francisco Bay Area choreographers and activists whose theatrical dances, sitespecific works, films, movement meditations, and political protests first inspired me to think about the relationship between choreography and AIDS. I am grateful to have spent almost a decade participating as a dance critic in such a lively, iconoclastic, activist arts community. Though I moved to Los Angeles ten years ago and have kept loose ties to New York, the Bay Area remains my first dance home. I also want to thank my dear friends and colleagues there, who helped me begin thinking about what it means to be a gay man making (or watching) dances in a time of great emotional, physical, and political turmoil, particularly my friend Daniel Goldstein, who was my willing sidekick during the years 1985-93 at both performances and protests, as well as Ellen Webb, Stephen Cobbett Steinberg, Bill Huck, Joah Lowe, Diana Vest Goodman, Danny Sauro, Janice Ross, Elizabeth Zimmer, Gay Morris, Tom O’Connor, Joe Goode, Djola Branner, Rachel Kaplan, and a hundred others whose love and support have meant so much to me. You know who you are. In addition, I must thank the editors of the publications that I wrote for during that time—especially Rob Hurwitt at the East Bay Express and a long string of supportive editors at the Oakland Tribune—for sending me out to see many of

the works that are now the focus of this book. J also thank them for teaching me to write at the intersection of sophisticated ideas xi

xii Acknowledgments and straightforward communication, a value I remind myself of every time I sit down at the computer.

This book began as a dissertation at the University of California, Riverside, where I had the good fortune to work with susan Leigh Foster, a gracious and indomitable force in the field of dance studies and a warm and dedicated mentor to me. I can’t thank her enough. At Riverside, in what seems in retrospect to have been a golden age, I also had the opportunity to learn from

an extraordinary array of scholars in allied fields, including Philip Brett, Sue-Ellen Case, George Haggerty, Marta Savigliano,

Linda Tomko, and, when he was a visiting professor at nearby UCLA, Douglas Crimp. I am particularly indebted to David Roman, of the University of Southern California, for initiating me into the study of AIDS cultural analysis. My fellow graduate students at Riverside continue to exert a huge influence on my work, and for that and for the levity and friendship they have brought into my life as a scholar, I blow kisses to ringleader Maura Keefe and to John Beynon, Jens Giersdorf, John Jordan, Janet O’Shea, Rebecca Rugg, and Karen Schaffman. I am also erateful to many far-flung friends and colleagues who sustained me through these years and, in some cases, collaborated in organizing conference presentations and lectures, or in commissioning essays for publication, especially Ann Cooper Albright, Bill Bissell, Suzanne Carbonneau, Ananya Chatterjea, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Deborah Jowitt, Alan M. Kriegsman, Sali Ann Kriegsman, Susan Manning, Allen F. Roberts, Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts, Robert Sember, Marcia B. Siegel, Radhika Subramaniam, Lan-Lan Wang, and Tricia Henry Young. I began teaching as a visiting professor at UCLA at the invita-

tion of Judy Mitoma, the visionary founder of the new Department of World Arts and Cultures. Since that time a string of department chairs has supported me in this project, including Christopher Waterman (now dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture), Peter Nabokov, and David Rousseéve, not to mention my wonderful colleagues in WAC. The university itself has contributed substantially to my work through yearly research and travel grants offered through the Academic Senate’s Congress on Research. Membership in the Interdisciplinary Queer Studies group of the University of California Humanities Research Institute, organized by Robyn Wiegman, gave me a big

Acknowledgments xii boost when I was just beginning the process of revising the dissertation into a book. Wiegman and colleagues Madelyn Detloff, Carla Freccero, George Haggerty, Eithne Luibheid, Lisa Rofel, Sandy Stone, and especially Nayan Shah, pressed me to think of my work in terms larger than dance studies. Iam grateful for the challenges they put to me. I have also been enormously stimulated by the input of graduate students in my seminars on queer studies, particularly the spitfires who have aided me as research assistants: Peter Carpenter, Laurah Klepinger, Ann Mazzocca, Raquel Monroe, Jill Nunes Jensen, and Norah Zuniga Shaw.

I must include words of praise for the librarians and archivists who have facilitated my work, including the staff at the Rivera Library of the University of California, Riverside; Margaret Norton and Kirsten Tanaka of the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum; Ray Soto and Roberta Medford of UCLA’s Young Research Library; Madeleine Nichols, Monica Mosely, Susan Kraft, and Lesley Farlow of the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library; Annette Fern and Beth CarrollHorrocks of the Harvard Theatre Collection; Larry Billman and Saadia Billman of the Los Angeles Academy of Dance on Film; and Jeff Friedman of the Legacy Oral History Project. During the

period that I was working on this book, I simultaneously conducted a survey of choreographers affected by AIDS in New York City, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area for the Estate Project for Artists with AIDS. This work, conducted under the aegis of New York’s Alliance for the Arts, extended the range

of my research to such a significant degree that I now consider the finished on-line survey to be an informal companion to this volume. Thanks to the Alliance’s Randall Bourscheidt, Patrick Moore, and Brennan Gerard for leading that project and to the literally hundreds of choreographers, and their friends and family, who dug into their personal archives to send me materials. I value these shards of life and work more than they can know. When I was close to completing this book, I shared chapters in whole or in part with several artists and experts who possess direct knowledge of the material. Many thanks to Tommy DeFrantz, Joe Goode, Neil Greenberg, Keith Hennessy, David Roman, Jim Self, Robert Sember, Don Shewey, Clyde Smith, Rad-

hika Subramaniam, Joanne Sukaitis, David Weissman, and Bob Yesselman for sharing their opinions and for challenging me to

xiv Acknowledgments think about the choreographies in this book from various points of view. Even when I decided to go in a different direction, their input was essential. Working with Raphael Kadushin, Sheila Moermond, and Erin Holman of the University of Wisconsin Press has been a bless-

edly smooth and humane experience. This is my first singleauthor book, and I can only hope that every book in my future will be nurtured as warmly and carefully as has this one. I am especially indebted to the Press’s manuscript readers, Sally Banes

and an anonymous second reader, for their intelligent commentary and gentle prods. I also want to acknowledge Polly Kummel, my dream copyeditor, who not only has been an ace in

matters of spelling and consistency but who has also grappled deeply with the ideas in the book. Our exchanges have been extremely fruitful and have rendered otherwise difficult chores a pleasure. My sincere thanks to you, Polly.

I have saved my Los Angeles friends and my family for last, because they will celebrate the completion of this book perhaps even more than I. Without a sprawling support system it would have been impossible for a hard-working dad to get any time for his book, and so I make this list to honor the people who have helped me stay sane: Barbara Allen, Ganga Amarasinghe, Mary Beck, Bonnie Brooks, Clark Brown, Victor Brown, Tom Burke, Mary Carley, Clay Crosby, Carol Endo, Dan Froot, Kelly Grief, Roberta Grossman, John Hamilton, Ellen Harrington, Berta Alicia Hernandez, Tom Keegan, Laurie Kilpatrick, Davidson Lloyd, Vic Marks, Christian Militello, Megan Morling, Sabrina Motley, Corine Motley, Laurie Newman, David Plante, Carra Robertson, Steve Rostine, Sophie Sartain, Robert Scheps, and Linda Timmons. Thank you for listening to me while tossing a salad or while pushing kids on the swing set at our neighborhood park. And thanks to my parents, my brother and sisters and their families, and my kids, Christopher and Isadora, for caring about me even more than about this book. As for Peter Carley, my partner of ten years, I can only think of one way to tell you how grateful I am. This book is for you.

How to Make Dances in an Epidemic

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