Breath as impulse, breath as thread
Breath as catalyst for making an autobiographical performance in response to ‘corrective rape’ and hate crimes against lesbians
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14960786 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sara Matchett (0000-0002-2962-9908, University of Cape Town, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 280-291 |
| Publication date | 2012-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South African Theatre Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1013-7548 • E-ISSN: 2163-7660 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10137548.2013.803670 |
| OpenAlex | W2050208762 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
This article documents and reflects on making an autobiographical performance piece with a black South African lesbian performer. The occurrence of ‘corrective rape’ amongst lesbians in South Africa, particularly black lesbians, is alarmingly high. This particular performer approached me about facilitating the making of a work that drew on her biography. She felt the need for her story, as a black lesbian, to be heard and taken seriously. She felt the need, through the telling of her story, to celebrate her sexuality in the light of the stigma attached to being a lesbian in South Africa that often leads to ‘corrective rape.’ The process of making the work engaged methods of mapping that involved creating a physical life-sized map of the body as well as utilising the Destructuring aspect of Fitzmaurice Voicework® as a way of mapping the breath in the body and engaging the imagination in the remembering of stories that reside in the soma of the performer. The article explores how the suggested methodology, i.e. that of somatic mapping, might assist the performer in dealing with, and expressing freedom from, the hetero-normative ideas around the body and sexuality. I investigate how this methodology can potentially assist the exploration of the body's story as it intersects with the personal and political body through the notion of destructuring and restructuring
Aesthetics · Art · Human sexuality · Lesbian · Performing arts · Queer · Sociology · Visual arts · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Gender Studies · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Psychology · Theatre and Performance Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |