Gender, desire and visual pleasure in the dancing body.

Abstract

In applying theories regarding gender, the body, and psychoanalytic theory of visual pleasure, I would like to examine how dance and bodies in film can be used to reflect and regulate social behaviour, as well as embody and evoke desire. The first chapter will cover a brief introduction to the history of western dance forms, mainly classical ballet and ballroom, Latin American and street styles, as well as the socio-cultural issues in the context of dance. The second chapter looks at how films serve as a platform for dance as well as a discussion of films that broach social and cultural issues. The third chapter delves into how socio- cultural concerns, as well as dance, play a part in gender, the body and desire, and how dance films broach these issues. The fourth and final chapter briefly considers how the dancing body can be used as an aesthetic element in avant garde films.