Techniques of black male re/dress
Corporeal drag and kinesthetic politics in the rebirth of Waacking/Punkin
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4517290 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Naomi Bragin, Naomi Elizabeth Bragin (University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 61-78 |
| Publication date | 2014-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Women & Performance a journal of feminist theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0740-770X • E-ISSN: 1748-5819 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0740770x.2014.901599 |
| OpenAlex | W2165286773 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 19 |
The improvisation-based dance Waacking/Punking developed in gay underground disco clubs of 1970s Los Angeles and circulated transnationally via television's landmark black music/dance show Soul Train. With almost all male progenitors passing during the early AIDS crisis, the culture was reborn in the 2000s to the transnational hip-hop/street dance arena, now a competition style dominated by nonblack cisgender females. While seeming to promote hetero-normative gender performance, learning the dance practice potentially queers movement norms through corporeal drag – techniques for trying on and refashioning movement that transform kinesthetic consciousness. At the same time, the obscure structural positioning of the black male figure associated with Waacking/Punking's historical context complicates and disorients gendered notions of power and racialized sexuality in its rebirth. This trans-methodological study centers experiences of black practitioners, drawing from first-person stories of pioneer and new generation dancers, as well as native ethnography and archival research. In subtle ways, Waacking practices redress black masculinity and question performing social inclusion under terms of a white patriarchal order – terms that suture blackness-to-pathology-to-violence. The erotic practice of Waacking/Punking may be understood as an embodied re-negotiation of hegemonic demands on gender and sexuality, made possible through its transmission of a black kinesthetic politics
Aesthetics · Art · Choreography · Contemporary dance · Dance · Human sexuality · Kinesthetic learning · Masculinity · Modern dance · Political science · Politics · Queer · Sociology · Visual arts · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Gender Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Race, History, and American Society
In the break
Impossible dance
Extravagant Abjection
Red, White & Black
Butch Queens Up in Pumps
Ante-Anti-Blackness
Agency and Embodiment
Female Masculinity
Shot and Captured
The Position of the Unthought
Culture and the Senses
Hip Hop and the Black Ratchet Imagination
Culture and the SensesBodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community
Gender/Racial Realness
For "the Children" Dancing the Beloved Community
Cruising the Toilet
Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe
The Case of Blackness
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,82 |
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |