Research Report required for the completion of
Master of Arts – Applied Drama
(MAAD)
Drama for Life - Wits School of Arts - Wits University
March 2015This study aims to explore ideas of liberation in relation to the present
tendencies of gender representation in Tango. I argue that the traditional pedagogic
model, observed in Johannesburg, tends to perpetuate hegemonic discourses mainly
through terminology in which gender binaries, codes and subjectivities are normalized.
Such representations reduce, or even reject, plurality and diversity by sustaining specific
power dynamics, necessarily related to the role of men and women. Tango is
characterized by certain aesthetic elements described in this thesis, and here I prioritize
the analysis of its role as a social dance, in the category of couples’ dances. I argue that
couples’ dances are embedded in historically and socially constructed stereotypes; thus,
the dynamics observed in balls are not capable of reflecting present gender complexities
and identities.
To do so, I first present a critical reflection of the history of couples’ dances and
Tango, along with my own lived experience as a movement facilitator. Then, I present
descriptions of the first phase of the research, the Performance as Research (PAR)
project in which I aimed to deconstruct hegemony by challenging gender fixities. The
PAR included creative processes, interviews, performance, media and textual
production, and the main outcome was related to the pedagogy of dance, presenting
the DE-GENDERED MODEL of teaching-learning.
In the second phase of research, or what I call the fieldwork, I engaged with
different methods, such as dance meetings based on investigative approaches, body
mapping, micro-performance, group discussions and questionnaires to collect data
together with a group of 9 participants. I made sense of all the information collected
during PAR, and, given by participants during fieldwork, by correlating theories of
performance, critical pedagogy, gender and queer studies, with the purpose of including
collaborative pathways of embodiment
