Lesbian Dance-Theory Party ($10 tickets at the door)
Marjorie Ward Marshall Center for Dance (Ballroom) at Northwestern University (10 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston)
after-party for Fall Dance Concert

Funds raised, split between DSA and Brave Space Alliance

In August 2022 a US Congress Woman, in resisting President Biden's student loan forgiveness, said that she did not want her tax dollars funding "Karen's daughters degree in lesbian dance theory." Yet, resistance to LGBTQIA+ materials, to queer theory, and to critical thinking are happening throughout the world. Dance is doing.

We know that policies that appear to be about gender are always already about race, and policies about race are always already about gender. So restrictions against critical race theory, and gender, queer and trans studies, are connected to attacks on trans rights and the US rollback on abortions rights. All of these aim to impede and control bodily autonomy and self-determination. As dancers and dance scholars we've created a field deeply invested in bodily autonomy. By celebrating our critical thought as a field, we recommit to the protection of these principles and celebrate them loudly in the spaces we work within.

Fun and funny but not frivolous. Part dance party, part celebration of lesbian dance theory - and as a resistance to current attacks on academic freedom. “Lesbian dance theory” is both a specific thing and an umbrella frame for the interlinked, anti-oppression of LGBTQIA+ people and ideas. A party for lesbian dance theory is also and always a party for queer communities of color and a critique of how whiteness polices dancing bodies and academic spaces.

The Dance Studies Association hosted a collaborative, spontaneous Lesbian Dance-Theory Party at the 2022 DSA conference (Vancouver BC). We are not done. Join us on November 9th for Northwestern University Dance Program's own party.  

DSA is committed to the field of dance studies as a place of radical inclusion and political possibility. Our dancing bodies must enact stated values, drawing words off of paper and people into community.  Memberships start at $25/year (www.dancestudiesassociation.org).