Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Ohio University, 2017, Dance

Dancenoise was created by Lucy Sexton and Anne Iobst after graduating from Ohio University in 1983. They worked as an active part of the downtown dance scene—a group of avant-garde dance artists—where they established themselves as prominent members with a fusion of performance art and dance. Due to the explicit feminist perspective embedded in their work and their prominence in the downtown dance scene, it is curious that they have not been the focus of a dance and feminist studies project. This thesis analyzes two of their works Half a Brain (1988) and Open Season (1996) and argues that Dancenoise disrupts and subverts Western culture's heterosexist attitudes towards the body. There are three theoretical paradigms used to analyze how Sexton and Iobst transgress hegemonic culture. Through gaze theory, particularly male gaze theory, I assert that Sexton and Iobst challenge patriarchal representations of women through their fast-paced scene structure and use of nudity in tandem with dialogue. To further argue that they transgress hegemony, I assert that they disrupt the subjugation and docility of the body in the West by utilizing Michel Foucault's theorizing on “docile bodies”. Furthermore, I use Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity to argue that they challenge and subvert bodily norms of behavior, refuting traditional, sexist ways of using the body. To conclude, I assert that Dancenoise adheres to a poststructuralist decentered subjectivity. This is at the heart of their subversive tendencies.

Committee: Tresa Randall Ph.D (Advisor) Subjects: Dance; Fine Arts; Womens Studies