Genderqueer Partnerships in Mainstream Media: Courtney & Josh
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”.
DANCING WITH THE STARS AUSTRALIA: COURTNEY & JOSH
The Australian version of Dancing with the Stars functions extremely similarly to other iterations of the same show and BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. In this partnership, Courtney Act is a drag queen, competing almost entirely in this drag persona with her professional partner Josh. In cases where Courtney’s street persona – Shane – appears on stage, it is his presence, not Courtney’s, that is considered the alternate identity. Throughout weekly rehearsals, even when not in costume, Josh refers to his partner as Courtney and uses feminine pronouns – this case study will do the same. Courtney and Josh were finalists in the show, though they did not win. Since they were on the show for the entirety of the season, their many dances present a varied and rich source of analysis, as their choreographic and costuming choices reveal a conscious manipulation of gender and power dynamics specifically to make a statement about these issues, whereas both female same-sex couples establish their interpersonal dynamic and maintain it without much comment.
Courtney and Josh use drag – explicitly this time – to create the visual aesthetic of a heteronormative ballroom couple. The majority of their dances are performed in full drag – two of which present notable disruptions of this aesthetic. Over the course of the show, they dance jive, cha-cha, tango, two sambas, quickstep, two freestyles, contemporary, Viennese waltz, two jazz routines, paso doble, and a hybrid foxtrot/tango. Of these, the tango, foxtrot/tango, Viennese waltz, and quickstep are the only smooth/standard dances in a set of fourteen routines. Of these four, the former two are performed with intentional gender disruption and the latter two are presented with quintessential heteronormative styling. Programming most of the dances in the rhythm/Latin category gives Courtney and Josh the opportunity to take advantage of the more mirrored styling, though the inclusion of samba and cha-cha (dances that experience the hyper sexualization of Latin dances) is accompanied by choreographic decisions that do reinforce the idea of Courtney as a flirtatious and feminine-styled follow in contrast to Josh’s more stoic and masculine-coded lead. Interestingly, a number of their heteronormatively-styled dances end in a final pose that places Courtney in the position of power – in several routines she ends standing strong and upright, while Josh ends sprawled on the floor.
Many of Courtney and Josh’s dances play with gender aesthetics in specific and intentional ways. Their paso doble trio (14:45), which would usually be an opportunity for the follow – Courtney – to be passed between two leads and not have much agency, inverts this dynamic. At multiple points throughout this routine, Courtney controls the actions of both her leads, and the dynamic in the trio presents a woman in charge of two men who exist to do her bidding. Their quickstep also has subtle moments of gender subversion. In an interview before the final, Courtney reminisces about her costume and overall image in the quickstep routine. She gestures to a photo from their performance, saying: “this one is where I felt like I was…it” (Vandergeld, “Grand Finale”), referencing her long, curly blonde wig, floor-length, fluffy white dress, and soft, curved shaping in frame – elements that together present a clear persona of the quintessentially beautiful, graceful, feminine follow. Within the routine, Courtney retains this persona for the duration, but also begins the dance with a moment of ambidanceterity, leading Josh through several steps (5:20), and ending the routine in the same “powerful” position mentioned above – even in one of their most heteronormative routines, Courtney and Josh add moments that subvert the audience’s expectations for the level of control each partner has over the dance.
Courtney and Josh’s tango routine to “Real Men” by Joe Jackson (2:20) and foxtrot/tango to “Toxic” both make explicit statements about the roles of masculinity and femininity in performance in different ways. Their tango begins with Courtney in full, long-skirt and blonde updo costume, with all the monikers of a traditionally coded couple. The song choice immediately calls this into question, as the lyrics discuss the conflict between sexuality, gender identity/presentation, and the perceived value of both. Over the course of the routine, Courtney removes her wig, then her dress, gradually removing the drag identity until Shane is revealed at the end, standing near-nude in front of an empty mirror frame and clearly male, in an answer to the question of “who the real men are.” In their post-performance interview, Shane discusses the difference between performing an identity separate from oneself and accepting the possibility of integrating the femininity he had established as a separate persona into his own sense of self (Vandergeld, “It’s okay for boys to be feminine”). The gender norms of ballroom and subsequent subversion thereof gave Courtney and Josh a specific lens with which to frame this argument: a partnership that blurs the lines between masculine and feminine, what it means to lead and to follow. The very act of crossing these lines becomes a commentary on the arbitrary designations of these categories and calls into question the type of value assigned to each one.
In contrast to the overt gender manipulation of the tango routine, Courtney and Josh’s foxtrot/tango (16:14) takes a different angle. Aesthetically, their costuming choices mirror each other. Courtney dances this entire dance as Shane, in a suit with a waist-length cape as a stylization of the floats/skirt a female follow would typically wear. Other than the cape, their costumes are very similar. This is the only dance with no drag element whatsoever, and also one of the most introverted. In some places, Shane uses a subtler follow shaping than he does when he dances as Courtney, downplaying the elongated, curved spine and tilted head. This is most noticeable around 17:15 – Shane’s head is shaped in and to the right, angled towards Josh rather than away as would be typical in a tango. In other places, he retains the standard amount of shaping, especially on non-travelling moments that emphasize dramatic poses (17:02). The deceleration of pace toward the end, concluding with a camera zoom on Shane and Josh’s joined hands, make a different statement about gender and sexuality – in this routine, they present their non-drag couple identity as fact, downplaying the performed aspects of gender and instead focusing on a sense of interpersonal connection that some of their more upbeat, extroverted dances deemphasize. This moment of introversion and connection juxtaposes their more overt “statement” choreographies and their largely heteronormative ones, presenting a different side to their partnership. For the most part, Courtney and Josh have a similar partnership dynamic to Nicola and Katya, emphasizing a sense of the couple playing to the audience as well as interacting with each other. Their foxtrot/tango shows another interpretation of the couple dynamic: interiorly focused on a close, romantic connection and subsequently offering commentary on sexuality and acceptance.
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.
