Performing the body, creating culture

This article takes the paradox that watching a performance of the ballet Giselle presents to the feminist viewer a starting-point for a reflection on the relationship between bodies and cultures. Looking at ballet as a reflection and representation of specific cultural. notions, which it (re)creates at the same time, and using the notion of gender as a performative act, the construction of the dancer's body is analysed in relation to specific representations of femininity and masculinity. Historical conventions condition and circumscribe the body of both male and female dancers. But dancers cannot be seen as passive transmitters of cultural norms. Through their bodies, dancers creatively explore the body's possibilities. Therefore, the body must not only be seen as the materialization of cultural norms, but also as a materialization of the dancer's interpretation of them.