Sex and desire on the dancefloor: A queer post-structuralist approach to reclaiming erotic dances

Abstract

In this article I intend to examine the rising popularity of erotic dances as a leisure activity practiced in a feminist dance school situated in Brussels, and question what exactly it is these dancers are reclaiming when using a discourse about sexual liberation and empowerment. To address the complexity of gender, sexuality and performance, this study uses a queer post-structuralist analysis and an ethnographic methodology when studying erotic dances. Based on observations and in-depth interviews with students and instructors, this study argues that writing off erotic dance solely as a hype within the trend to commercialize sexuality, is ignoring the useful and subversive ways in which these erotic dancers are investigating the production of their sexed bodies to disrupt and deconstruct normative ideas about sexuality and gender.