This morning, during Ondrej’s class I couldn’t help but think of what we have discussed the day before about the neutral pose and about how each of us has in the end their own neutral pose. I was analyzing people’s movements when we were standing, thinking that those exercises/the dancing are/is indeed perceived as neutral and nothing could strike out as sexual or gender associated, but at the same time I couldn’t not notice the particularities in each person’s movement as they were unconsciously neutrally performing. There was still some sort of cultural/gender associated particularity in each movement that I saw. I am not sure yet whether it is a subjective thought, a thought shaped by my social and cultural preconstruction and expectations or it is indeed something valid, that we purely can’t change.

Trajal’s discussions made me wonder a bit of how leaving in an ideal world/country would be like, where people would indeed be excepted/tolerated for who they are and for what they want to become regardless of their appearance. It made me think of what Deborah said, realness of NYUAD and the tolerance within such a diverse community. Is there such a thing as a realness within every community? Yes, there is but it’s the kind of realness adapted to the context to the community which is only done in order to fit in for the benefits of the community, while what we have seen in Paris is burning, in my opinion, is more of a personal strive and will to become that person, for that person to become your real version. Comparing to NYUAD, our realness, it’s not necessarily a common goal, it is how we wish to be perceived in order to be accepted by the community, while each of us has completely different goals and character within his own country, family or group of friends.

I must admit that know I am really obsessed with that Beyonce song and music video! (was on repeat all day:D) I didn’t know about it but I did recognize where the dance moves/scenes were mostly plagiarized from.  I am a huge Audrey Hepburn fan and I have recognized the dress and dance style from the start of movie clip and have indeed noticed the over-sexualization of Beyonce’s body and attitude had done on the character and image of Audrey Hepburn. I unwillingly felt a bit uncomfortable and a bit angry at the way she was reenacting Audrey. Could I say that this is a juxtaposition of the two times/celebrity types/fashion? If so, why is it that the contemporary media/commercial music does exactly the opposite of what the artists of the contemporary and postmodern dance context are trying to do? It feels like the commercial media products have been trying to indeed make even “thicker” boundaries between what gender is and is accentuating as time passes by, presenting movies and videoclips and music where both men and women are overly sexualized with particular “repeated performances”, as Judith Butler would say. Why and how has the contemporary and postmodern dance world come to a completely opposite conclusion? That is something I would like to ask and discuss maybe in tomorrow’s class.