One of the three males to participate in the dance class during the period of time I was researching was Brock. Brock only attended one dance class, but was willing to share about his experience and talk about his own gender roles and expectations as a man.
Brock grew up in suburban Atlanta and led a childhood not atypical from that of most boys. He played some sports, and later grew an interest in what he referred to as more alternative sports, such as BMX and skateboarding. He told me that his participation with other males in the alternative crowd is partly responsible for the ways in which he relates to masculinity. While he still ascribes to most masculine social norms, if he chooses to move outside of those norms he is not concerned of the consequences or what toll it may take on his masculinity. Brock credits that group mentality of not preoccupying oneself with what others think and also the presence of women in his life for his views and opinions. In his own words, he is a “guy’s guy who doesn’t care what other guys think”.
Brock hardly had any prior knowledge of flamenco before going to the class; in fact, he recalls his first experience with flamenco as being exciting. He still recalls watching a Robby William’s music video of a sexy woman dancing flamenco. He made a comment regarding see- ing flamenco as an exotic dance due to the sexiness the women portrayed, but he was clear to distinguish that it was not the brand of “sexy” that you find on MTV or with girls in bikinis. He felt that the clothing, which he described as beautiful and incredible, created an illusion of sen- suality more than sexuality displayed through the body by the talent of the dancer and her movement.
During his first class, Brock commented that he was not aware that he was joining a woman’s class. He seemed lost in terms of what to do with his physical movements, but at the
same time he appeared at ease with his surroundings, and nothing about his demeanor suggested he felt uncomfortable surrounded by women. During our interview, he even made a comment partially in jest that it was impossible and unreasonable to feel uncomfortable when surrounded by beautiful women dancing. Later, Brock clarified his feelings of comfort and security amongst the group even as the gendered minority. He told me that he could understand, based off his pre- vious experiences with issues of masculinity, how a man could feel threatened by being sur- rounded by women who have power and knowledge of such a complicated dance. He said that he did not expect for flamenco dance to be so complex and difficult, and that it was something that a man could not simply “hammer” through. When I asked for more clarification, he drew a corre- lation to concepts of human nature and said that women are naturally more graceful than men, so it is more difficult for a man to break into the sphere of dancing even though men are capable of being strong dancers. To further his point, Brock drew a comparison saying that a man entering the dance studio is like a man trying out for a female sports league. He stated that facing a league of the opposite sex could be intimidating for many men.
Brock also talked with me about the issue of sexuality, and how men in the United States see dance as feminized and male participation is deemed as “gay”. According to Brock, when a male is a great dancer it means either he is homosexual, or he is a strong person who looks beyond the pride typically applied to masculinity. In Brock’s opinion, flamenco is a male- dominated dance, because he says that the women basically dance around the man. He did, how- ever, say about the woman that, “frankly, she’s doing all the damn work”, and said that while the male does have the dominant position, the female has the knowledge and power because she knows what she is doing and is manipulating the dance. Brock also offered a suggestion as a way to circumvent the idea that flamenco dance is feminine by publicizing it more in ways that in-
cluded masculine figures, such as on the television show Dancing With The Stars.
Regarding Brock’s thoughts on freedom through flamenco dance, he said that he felt that through movement he could understand dance as something that might be freeing; however, in the case of flamenco he associated a feeling of accomplishment and pride with the understanding of the difficult physical technicalities of the dance. I found his focus on the technical throughout our conversations to be intriguing, especially because he made frequent correlations between in- ner strength, knowledge and dancing.
7 PERFORMED IDENTITIES
“You don’t just bake a pie for yourself, you share it with others so they can enjoy it, try to make it and share it with others.” One thing became abundantly clear about the community’s view on flamenco- it is imperative that it be performed. There is a desire to not only reproduce flamenco dance but to do so publicly. Every informant with whom I spoke told me that they be- lieved flamenco should be performed publicly, so that people could learn about it and keep it alive. The existence of this community and the ways in which it is run speaks to the publicness encouraged by the participants. The JaleOlé website serves as a virtual flamenco enclave and ex- ists mainly for reasons of publicity. The website offers a mailing list which keeps people updated with community events, reaching out to share flamenco. These flamenco “outreach” events are varied to encompass anyone regardless of age or gender, and are held in public settings, such as the library.