Genderqueer Partnerships in Mainstream Media: Nicola & Katya
Author Anne Amen examines how gendered partner dynamics influence dancers’ and audiences’ perception of ballroom, and how meeting these aesthetic expectations influences the “believability” of a dance. This will be done through a series of case studies, each examining a same-sex couple that competed on a mainstream TV show. Amen will analyze the aesthetic and choreographic choices of each and discuss how these decisions impact the audience’s perception of the couple’s connection to each other.
This series of case studies is part of Amen’s university paper “The Rainbow Connection: Genderqueer Partnerships in Ballroom Dance”.
STRICTLY COME DANCING: NICOLA & KATYA
BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing is a British equivalent show to the American and international versions of Dancing with the Stars. It has aired yearly since 2004, with eighteen seasons to date. Public personalities are paired with professional dancers to learn choreographies in a variety of (mainly) ballroom dance styles. Their performances are scored by judges and winners are determined by public voting. On this show and others like it, couples are assigned a dance each week – while specific choreographic choices are handled by each partnership, the dances chosen are not necessarily under their control. Nicola and Katya competed in the 2020 season of Strictly and were the first same-sex couple in the show’s history. They danced three weeks of the show before COVID-19 prevented them from continuing, and they returned in the final to present an un-judged show dance. In their week 1 performance of the quickstep, they present a different approach to gendered aesthetics than Santra and Piia do; while Nicola (leading) also wears a more androgynous outfit – an embellished jumpsuit – Katya mirrors her costuming with a similar jumpsuit in different colors. Neither dancer wears a skirt.
Despite this costuming difference, Nicola and Katya cultivate an image for their partnership dynamic that is similar to Santra and Piia’s. Quickstep, from the category of smooth/standard travelling dances that also includes waltz, foxtrot, tango, and Viennese waltz, is the most effervescent and extroverted dance in this subcategory. Its music is fast and jazzy – in some respects, very similar to jive music. The tempo requires equally quick, lilting steps punctuated with small skips and hops that convey a feeling of bubbly lightness. Like Santra and Piia’s jive, this quickstep is focused more on the couple’s collective external relationship to their audience, rather than a sense of intimate connection forming between the two partners. As their first dance on the show, choreographic and aesthetic elements of this dance would have been carefully chosen to set the tone for how Nicola and Katya planned to represent their partnership.
One moment in this choreography is especially striking; around 1:10, Nicola and Katya return to frame after a moment of dancing separately, and when they do, Katya takes over the lead half of the frame for a moment. This happens again around 1:25 – switching lead and follow in the middle of the dance (a demonstration of what I like to call ambidanceterity) evens out what little lead-follow inequality exists in this choreography by allowing each partner to prove to the audience that they are capable of dancing both parts. Considering that out of their three official dances in the competition, the quickstep is the most typically gender/power coded style they danced, choreographing and styling a minimum of distinction between the lead and follow roles retains the balance of power in their partnership that is also evident in their couple’s choice street commercial (synchronized choreography danced largely out of frame) and their jive (with the same symmetrical stylistic implications discussed in Santra and Piia’s choreography). Overall, Nicola and Katya’s partnership focuses on upbeat, egalitarian dances that minimize the traditional dichotomy between masculine/feminine and lead/follow. The dynamic between them is one of mirroring or matching each other and maintaining an extroverted sense of the couple connected to the audience, rather than a sense that each member of the partnership is intimately connected to the other.
Nicola and Katya’s show dance in the final of the show is the most gender-normative performance they dance. It includes elements of Argentine tango – a traditionally sensuously-coded dance – and their costuming shows more specific gendered choices than the matching outfits of their other routines. Interestingly, they perform this choreography when they are no longer being judged as a part of the competition, suggesting a consciousness of audience gaze as an influence on how they choose to perform gender in their dancing.
by Anne Amen
Anne Amen is a musician, writer, and ballroom dancer focused on the connections between her art forms: how dance tells a story, how music makes movement audible, and how words speak through rhythm, flow, and gesture. She first discovered ballroom as an undergraduate at St. Olaf College, and has since competed, taught group classes, and led social dance organizations since 2018. Anne currently competes with the Badger Ballroom Dance Team while pursuing a master's degree in trumpet performance.
