Poitrines et Pantalons: Dressing for Resistance

During the July Monarchy and the years leading up to it, women who chose to wear pants in public were taking a real risk of violating The Ordonnance of 17 Brumaire 1800: it was an act of political resistance. Things were quite different at the Opéra where women en travestie were applauded for replacing male dancers, who, according to critics like Jules Janin, had no place dancing onstage. In both cases the feminine shape was not camouflaged but flaunted. If the ballerina's femininity was clear to the male gaze it reaffirmed audience masculinity and power as spectating consumers, while in public it had the opposite effect, a scandalous eroticism combined with a bid to usurp masculine power. At the Bal Mabille, however, male dancers like Chicard wore flamboyant costumes and danced emphasizing virile power, while their partners wore alluring dress that followed traditional gender roles, even if they sported pants outside the dance hall. In this paper I explore the ways that dance consuming reinforced or challenged male power and authority, onstage, in the public balls, or in the streets. 

Cara Gargano is Professor of Dance and Theatre at Long Island University. She studied at the New York School of Ballet and later taught at the school. She has performed nationally and internationally and her concert choreography received warm reviews from The New York Times and in Europe as well as in the United States. A stage director and choreographer, she also holds a PhD in French and published in both languages. She is twice Past President of the Congress on Research in Dance and Recipient of the Dixie Durr Award for Outstanding Service to Dance Research.