Hybrid choreographic femininities: DanceSport, physical culture, and performative corporeality in contemporary China

ABSTRACT

The integration of conventional Western styles and Chinese (physical) cultural elements has become an increasingly utilised choreographic trend in Chinese DanceSport. In major competitions and televised events, choreographers have sought to create distinctive performance-based identities and practices that at once adhere to Western stylistic and competitive conventions but also incorporate traditional Chinese physical and cultural aesthetics. In this study, we draw from Foucault’s theorisations of power and knowledge and disciplinary techniques to offer a dispositive analysis of the bodily performances of Chinese female DanceSport dancers – specifically analysing 19 prized dance pieces in two national competitions. Through the analysis of discursive, non-discursive, and material choreographic elements, we seek to examine how the bodies of Chinese female dancers interact with multiple forms of Western DanceSport and Chinese socio-cultural and political power/knowledge. We conclude that Chinese female dancing bodies are subject to the anatomical knowledge regarding the physical execution of Western technical skills as well as adhering to the norms of Western feminine aesthetics. However, our analysis illustrates how Chinese female dancers strategically utilise Western dance movements and techniques to navigate and potentially negotiate with traditional Chinese norms. Yet, these practices may still function within an anatomopolitical framework of female dancing bodies that is shaped through the promotion of Chinese national identity by the state.

KEYWORDS:

• DanceSport
• power/knowledge
• dispositive
• female docile bodies
• Western dancing techniques and skills
• China

Introduction

In 2020, Bangbang Yan, Yujun Du, Kunxuan Gu, and Chenhong Sun performed a dance called Five Colours Underglaze on a popular Chinese dance TV show—Dance Smash 2. The four dancers simulated a traditional Chinese pottery-decorating technique as part of their DanceSport routine – incorporating the aesthetics of ‘Oriental’ art and culture into the Western dance form. In a departure from more typical or traditional dance performances, in which female dancers tend to emphasise feminine characteristics through the use of colourful costumes and accessories (Benn and Walters 2001; Green 2003; Liu 2014; Picart 2012), the four dancers utilised simple, brown coloured costumes to symbolise the clay that is used as a main material for producing the pottery. As part of the dance TV show with the highest-ever domestic television/streaming viewership (Sina 2020), the four dancers performed a routine that adhered to the competitive structurations of DanceSport and simultaneously re-told a cultural story of the reverence and pride of Chinese traditional art through their moving bodies and dance choreographies.

This scene is representative of a trend in contemporary Chinese DanceSport whereby dancers increasingly incorporate both Western DanceSport choreographic elements with traditional Chinese cultural elements. In this study, we critically engage with, and analyse how, transnational cultural aesthetics and Chinese politics are intricately intertwined and disseminated in and through such choreographic performances. We first present a brief overview of DanceSport as it is currently practiced in China. Thereafter, we draw upon Michel Foucault’s conceptualisations of ‘dispositive’ to theorise how the feminine performances are constructed primarily within two dimensions – Western-based DanceSport conventions and the cultural moorings of Chinese society – and how discursive and non-discursive practices form a ‘grid of intelligibility’ within which dancers and audiences members alike might develop knowledges about contemporary dance, culture, about glocalised corporeality, and about physical culture in China more generally.

To this end, we selected 19 widely popular prized performances of two national competitions as broadcast and curated on online platforms. We then employed a dispositive analysis to examine how the choreographic elements featured therein represent the ways in which cultural identities are woven into, negotiated, and made (a)political in an increasingly tenuous Chinese cultural and political context. In the analysis, we focus on how discursive elements and corporeal practices are connected to a plurality of Western DanceSport norms and Chinese socio-cultural and political contexts. By way of a conclusion, we indicate the potential significance of the study through which DanceSport dancers can be defined, contested, and made meaningful within what was becoming an increasingly cosmopolitan (if currently recalcitrant) Chinese society.

A brief overview of Chinese DanceSport

The dance style used in the aforementioned Five Colours Underglaze performance is classified as DanceSport, which is a competitive version of ballroom dance that originated primarily in Europe and Latin America. In general terms, DanceSport refers to two subcategories, each with five different styles. The first subcategory is International Standard Dance (Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Quick Step, Foxtrot, and Tango) and the second is International Latin Dance (Rumba, Cha Cha, Jive, Samba, and Paso Doble). In many instances, these dance forms have undergone significant hybridisation. Savigliano (1995) demonstrates that as Tango became popular in Japan, two distinct versions emerged: 1) one was intervened by Europeans and North Americans which developed into popularised social dance (through the association with marketing and commercial focuses) and 2) the other refers to ‘French-Latin’ style that has particular disciplines and aristocratic centre of taste (183).

In recent years, a new direction of DanceSport, called showdance, has come to dominate the sport. Showdance dancers can freely select dance styles – mainly from DanceSport with a small number of other dance styles such as ballet, folk dance, and contemporary dance (see Wang 2018) – and adaptively apply dance elements such as music, costumes, makeup, and stage props to evoke specific aesthetics. In terms of the flexibility of rules and the pursuit of artistic exploration, showdance competitors can incorporate different cultural elements into dance routines and break out of the orthodoxies of Standard and Latin Dance. Showdance uniquely intertwines various athletic and aesthetic elements, not only serving as a medium that presents thematic stories and creatively integrates diverse dance vocabularies but also acting as a bridge that strengthens the interaction between competitive dance and specific cultural contexts. This dance form encapsulates a blend of narrative and cultural connectivity, enriching its expressive and communicative capacities. Accordingly, showdance provides researchers with a performance-based practice through which to interrogate the inter-relations of dance and dominant cultural identities and practices within various national contexts.

Our study is thus specifically situated in showdance variations of Chinese DanceSport.¹ For our empirical analysis, we selected the 2013 and 2015 CBDF Creative Showdance Competitions as these events represent significant sites, epitomising the unique political and cultural dynamics unfolding in China at the time: the years 2012 and 2013 marked the beginning of the ‘Xi Jinping era’, where diplomatic relations and domestic policies of China began to gradually shift towards an institutionalised post-market reform. This transition has been marked by a rejection of Western cultural norms and values in favour of Chinese-centric discourses and practices (Lams 2018). This represents a significant departure from the open door and reform strategy formulated by the prior political regime (Lam 2016).² This turning point, thus, creates an important (re)newed context for researchers to reassess the exercise of power associated with everyday and spectacularized forms of physical culture – and in this case the performative body practices of Chinese female dancers that may reflect the tensions and complexities of an increasingly cosmopolitan yet politicalized Chinese society vis-à-vis Western cultural norms embedded within DanceSport in China (see Dai et al. 2022; Markula 2020b). To elucidate these nuances more effectively, we draw upon Foucault’s ideas of dispositive, power/knowledge, and normalisation (of bodies) which enable us to critically examine the practices and politics of DanceSport in contemporary China.

Dispositive

The notion of dispositive moves beyond Foucault’s theory of discourse, whereby Foucault looked to extend his understanding of how texts, images, rules, policies, and a wide range of discursive and non-linguistic elements can be configured to order power, give structure to governing apparatuses, and formalise normative judgements, practices, and conventions (Caborn 2007). In an interview, Foucault offers a relatively comprehensive explanation of his concept of dispositive.³ The term dispositive (‘dispositif’, or as Foucault more specifically used, ‘apparatus’) refers to:

a thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions-in short, the said as much as the unsaid. (Foucault 1980, 194)

An important interpretation of this conceptualisation is that the dispositive thus encompasses both discursive and non-discursive elements, which can be used to interpret the historical and contemporary realities more appropriately (Jäger 2001).

Discursive utterances and non-discursive practices

In her poststructural critique of fitness instruction practices, Markula (2023) identifies that the visible (or non-discursive) can include materialised flesh and corporeal bodies and their environments (as opposed to discursive aspects, such as texts, talks, speech, dialogues, and documents). Importantly, discursive expressions and non-discursive practices are not mutually exclusive (Markula 2023); rather, heterogeneity and potential interchangeability of the discursive utterances and non-discursive practices is a strength of the dispositive orientation (Caborn 2007). In Foucault’s words, the dispositive ‘is the system of relations that can be established between these elements’ and ‘there is a sort of interplay of shifts of position and modifications of function which can also vary very widely’ (Foucault 1980, 194–195). In other words, Foucault acknowledged that there is ‘a co-existence of discourse and reality and/or objects; they are the elements of the dispositive which is the net hung between these elements and/or links them’ (Jäger 2001, 41). Advancing the discussion, Jäger (2001) proposed a ‘three-element’ dispositive analysis that includes discursive practices, non-discursive practices (actions), and material manifestations (objects). He posited that the existence of ‘material manifestations’ is only discernible through the interplay of both discursive and non-discursive practices.

Discursive practices in the context of DanceSport can be linked to a set of statements that are concerned about its social and recreational features as a leisure activity, as well as the competitive characteristics that differentiate it from other dance styles (Bosse 2015). In looking to make sense of these types of corporeal politics, Giardina and Newman (2011, 41) look beyond textual discourses and encourage researchers to examine how the moving body, articulated to and within broader contextual forces, is a constitutive site of meaning and thus ‘a site of passage – moving as it does across temporal, metabolic, spatial, and discursive planes’. Such engagement with the material body reveals an understanding of the embodied centrality of (in this case) dance and its effects on the discursive formation of dancers’ identities as a result of interaction within the social, cultural, political, and commercial dancing world. Here we follow Markula and Clark’s (2017, 95) claim that dance practices are not simply ‘high art’ but are informed by and located within broader power relations, health politics of physical activities, the entertainment industry, and so forth.⁴

Power/knowledge, disciplinary techniques, and dancing bodies

As Foucault (1980) notes, the dispositive is inherently strategic and ‘is a matter of a certain manipulation of relations of forces, either developing them in a particular direction, blocking them, stabilising them, utilising them, etc’ (196). Dispositives can thus be considered as ‘strategies of relations of forces’ that are ‘inscribed in a play of power’ and are ‘supporting, and supported by, types of knowledge’ (Foucault 1980, 196). In this sense, dispositives function as a power-knowledge grid that reveals previously unseen relationships between disparate elements within a field (Rabinow and Rose 2003).

Markula (2023) connects the strategic functions of dispositives to anatomo-politics wherein Foucault (1978) delineates the regulation and subjugation of the human body by biopolitical powers to realise the management and ‘optimization’ of life, health, and physicality within populations. In her previous example of fitness, fitness strategies enforce a specific articulable feminine body ideal: thin, toned, and youthful (Markula 1995). This ideal is deemed ‘normal’, and any deviation is considered abnormal, leading to problematised practices of continuous surveillance, self-monitoring, and modification to achieve and maintain the ‘normal’ body appearance. Through this lens, bodies are conceived as docile loci that can be subjected, used, normalised, transformed, and improved through strict regimens of biopolitical disciplinary practices (Foucault 1975). As such bodies are not only obedient but also productive and efficient.

In the dance world, DanceSport, as an amalgamation of sport, art, and cultural expressions, operates through the detailed regulation and control of female dancers’ bodies, to not only meet the specific physical and aesthetic standards of competitive sport, but also serve as a microcosm of larger societal dynamics where certain sexual and gender norms and expectations – especially regarding femininity and the roles, functions, and representations of female bodies – are reproduced and reinforced. The idealised dancing body has been constructed – through training regimes, expert judgements, and codified scoring criteria – in line with athletic and aesthetic expectations such as long limbs, flat stomachs, and slim, flexible, well-toned, and muscular physiques (Benn and Walters 2001; Green 2003). For DanceSport dancers, there are standardised movement lexicons and well-established mechanical and physiological principles that are not only acknowledged by participants but also serve as the foundation for teaching curricula and the criteria by which competitions are adjudicated (Markula 2018). Meanwhile, female dancers in different categories of DanceSport are often portrayed with seemingly different yet consistently feminised images (stereotypes). For example, Standard dancers usually show elegant and normalised images by maintaining vertical body positions, extending their body lines, lightly and fluently moving across the dancefloor, and concealing their efforts in every movement, whereas Latin dancers typically incorporate sexy and primal elements manifest in their costumes and exaggerated facial expressions (see McMains 2006). Specifically in DanceSport, dancers move their bodies in such a way intended to produce, and articulate to, knowledge formations that affirm (and potentially push the boundaries of) styles and aesthetics that are most likely to adhere to (or exceed) judges’ expectations and maximise scoring. Broadly stated, dance spaces are not separate from but rather dialectically bounded to society, and female dancers are subjected to cultural norms and their subjectivity (re-)produces the discourses that others may be subject to.

Chinese dancing bodies

In the present moment, the methods by which Chinese female dancers engage in, perform, and choreograph are characterised by Chinese elements in multiple dimensions and meanwhile conform to prevailing political and social contexts. Wilcox (2018) explains that there has been significant funding from the government to expand dance and DanceSport programmes across the country. For example, the state subsidised the production of a single dance drama named Maritime—which refers to a historical story about the first-known ship voyage from China to the Indian Ocean. Maritime simultaneously reifies President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy and economic initiative ‘One Belt, One Road (Yi Dai Yi Lu)’ and reveals the important role of dance dramas have played in Chinese political pedagogy (Wilcox 2018, 200). In the meantime, the dynamic contexts of contemporary China re-create and redefine DanceSport as an incomplete and ongoing work. Such management and operation have been institutionalised, dance techniques have been advanced, competitions and judge systems have been standardised, and the methods for popularisation have been extended to non-government organisations, formal dance organisations, schools, and media (Dai et al. 2022). Moreover, as Fu, Shu, and Wan (2019) point out, Chinese DanceSport dancers no longer simply imitate foreign dancers but also constantly update and develop dance vocabularies and techniques, based on the incorporation of Chinese national elements and traditional cultures into their dances. With the flexibility in showdance, practitioners have challenged constructed stereotypes in DanceSport by associating with Chinese art forms (such as Chinese classical dance, Chinese folk dance, and Chinese drama), and integrating Indigenous cultural and social elements into choreography. In addition to the combination of traditional Chinese cultural artefacts into performances (such as the aforementioned Five Colours Underglaze), performers have portrayed different masculine and feminine images that are both from and beyond Western aesthetics in DanceSport culture.

These trends in dance and DanceSport bring to focus a sociological phenomenon at the intersection where dance performance reflects a continuously perplexing physical culture-one that is local, global, traditional, contemporary, Indigenous, and cosmopolitan. To be specific, DanceSport acts as a site of public pedagogy, through which audiences learn about the ‘Other’s’ dance cultures, the role of foreign and global dance aesthetics in contemporary China, and the ongoing negotiations involving performance, normalising judgement, and cultural appropriation and appropriateness. These nuances give rise to new ‘grids of intelligibility’ (as described by Foucault 1978), redefining what can be publicly performed, spectacularized, and articulated within the People’s Republic of China.

Methodological approach

Following Jäger’s (2001) analysis strategy, in this study we conducted a dispositive analysis that involves scrutinising the heterogeneity of the discursive formations and non-discursive practices within a Chinese dance dispositive. Prior to delving into our analysis process, we provide a description of the rationale behind the selection of our empirical materials.

The selection of empirical materials

Nineteen showdance performances were selected from all gold, silver, and bronze prize pieces of two Chinese national DanceSport competitions – the 2013 and 2015 CBDF Creative Showdance Competition⁵—as the sources of our analysis (See Tables 1 and 2 for more details). We chose these competitions for several reasons. First, CBDF and its competitions have received considerable support (financial and otherwise) from Chinese government and state media, sponsorship from companies, participants from regional dance studios and universities, and a wide range of audiences from the public.⁶

Table 1. The prized performances in the 2013 CBDF creative showdance competition.

	Latin Dance	Standard Dance
Gold Prize	《永恒的心》 [My Heart Will Go On]	《姻 • 缘》 [Marriage]
Silver Prize	《最浪漫的事》 [The Most Romantic Thing]	《辛德勒名单》 [Schindler’s List]
	《山楂树之恋》 [Under the Hawthorn Tree]	《不离不弃》 [‘Til Death Do Us Part]
Bronze Prize	《陈白露》 [Chen Bailu]	《邦德与女郎》 [Bond and the Girl]
	《袖手旁观》 [Stand By]	《我们》 [Us]
	《街角的爱情》 [Love on the Street]	《青青校园》 [Campus]
	《青花梦》 [Dream of Blue and White Porcelain]

Table 2. The prized performances in the 2015 CBDF creative showdance competition.

	Latin Dance
Gold Prize	《浮生若梦》[Life is but a Dream]
Silver Prize	《融》[Melting]
	《战火后的重逢》[Together Again after the War]
Bronze Prize	《爱过》[Loved]
	《飞机上的邂逅》[Random Love]
	《花样年华》[In the Mood for Love]

Second, although the CBDF Creative Showdance Competitions are Chinese national DanceSport competitions, they establish a connection between China and the world. In each competition, the CBDF invited the world’s top-ranking competitors – such as the then-world champions of professional Standard Dance, Mirko Gozzoli and Edita Daniute who were invited to perform in the 2013 Creative Showdance Competition (CBDF 2021). Meanwhile, the prize-winning performance Sleepwalker’s Journey was performed in the Blackpool Dance Festival – which is the superlative competition of DanceSport – and awarded first place in 2015 (Tang 2016). As the most high-profile and widely-publicised DanceSport event of its kind, the CBDF Creative Showdance Competition is the platform through which DanceSport and the general public are most likely to consume and engage with such performances.

A dispositive analysis

Jäger (2001) adopts Foucault’s differentiation between the discursive and non-discursive components of the dispositive but further categorises the elements of the dispositive into three distinct types: discursive practices, non-discursive practices (actions), and materialisations/physical objects. For analytical purposes, we follow this account by considering all three categories. A dispositive analysis involves several steps. Firstly, it requires the reconstruction of knowledge within discursive practices, focusing on various aspects of the dispositive under investigation, such as ‘blank areas’ in the discourse and significant manifestations related to it. Secondly, it involves reconstructing the knowledge underlying non-discursive practices (e.g. a person is being observed walking down the street and searching for a bakery). Finally, it necessitates the reconstruction of manifestations/materialisations (e.g. an object, a house, and a bicycle) and the knowledge encapsulated within them (Jäger 2001, 58). These steps suggest that while we can categorise dispositives into three distinct elements, discourse analysis remains the primary analytical method for examining each element and the relationships therein (Caborn 2007; Jäger 2001). More precisely, we thus focus on examining what dominant discourses and more specifically how meanings (and knowledge) are produced through female dancer bodies (McGannon and Spence 2012) within and across the sub-dispositive categories.

Following this logic, in our context, we extend our analysis to the interrogation of bodily performances to understand the power-knowledge diagram underpinning ‘the active function and outcome of acts of discourse’ (Hook 2001, 525). More specifically, we analysed the performances of Chinese female dancers based on five interconnected discursive, non-discursive, and materialised choreographic elements, including: narratives/themes (discursive practices), dance genres and acts (non-discursive practices), role-settings (non-discursive practices), stage props (materialisations), and costumes and stylings (materialisations) (see Figure 1). For the discourse analysis of all the elements (and the discussions of the interrelationships across elements thereafter), we specifically consider the power relations – how power is utilised as it relates to the institutional context operated through dancing performances (McGannon and Spence 2010, 2012). The five choreographic elements in DanceSport utilised for our dispositive/discourse analysis frame were identified through a systematic review of relevant literature retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI, the largest monopolistic full-text academic information website in China) (CNKI 2022). To wit, we searched the CNKI database using keywords including DanceSport choreography, showdance choreography, and creative choreography in DanceSport, and returned 318 results. Our review of 318 scholarly documents then led us to identify five elements that were commonly discussed in DanceSport choreography. Guided by the five choreographic elements, we (re-)watched fine-grained videos of 19 showdance performances and delineated how the five elements were constructed and how the meanings (power relations) were attributed to female bodies within and across the five elements in DanceSport in China. Next, we discussed how the choreographic DanceSport dispositive redefines the boundaries of appropriateness and inappropriateness for female DanceSport dancers, and what subject position is made possible within the performative bodily movements and practices of Chinese female dancers.

Figure 1. Framework for a dispositive analysis of DanceSport.

Findings: choreographic elements in the Chinese DanceSport dispositive

The performance of the 19 showdances exhibited a diverse range of discursive, non-discursive, and material choreographic arrangements, drawing features from both Chinese culture and Western dance styles in the Chinese DanceSport dispositive. Below, we provide an overview of the five choreographic elements: narratives/themes, dance genres and acts, role-settings, costumes and stylings, and stage props. These elements, situated within the DanceSport dispositive, facilitate our exploration of how a specific power-knowledge diagram is embedded in and communicated through the bodily performances of Chinese female dancers.

Discursive practices

Narratives/themes

The narratives or themes of a dance play a pivotal role, as they guide the direction of coherent storylines, convey main ideas and content for dancers’ movement, and affect the application of various choreographic elements. A narrative represents how dancers’ movements/expressions/roles in each dance are discursively formed and constructed. To wit, the 19 showdance performances adopted romance and love-theme narratives in diverse historical and social contexts. Predominantly, these performances depicted love stories derived from both classic Chinese tales and contemporary Chinese novels and films – which intriguingly presented varied representations of Chinese women in different historical and contemporary moments. More specifically, some performances underscored the depiction of Chinese women who exhibited unwavering loyalty to their husbands and families (as seen in In the Mood for Love, Chen Bailu, and Together Again after the War). Further performances showcased women in flirtatious and seductive roles that were deemed evil, like in Dream of Blue and White Porcelain, while others painted a picture of pure love stories where women were depicted as quiet and shy, such as in Under the Hawthorn Tree. The narratives and themes presented in these dance performances collectively form a dominant discourse on virtue and aesthetic ideals – the ‘ideal’ Chinese female body as one that is subject to males, that is conservative, introverted, and loyal – a representation widely acknowledged by historical Confucian structure yet still appreciated in contemporary Chinese society.

Non-discursive practices

Dance genres and acts

Based on different dance vocabularies, techniques, characteristics of movements, and use of music, there are numerous dance genres such as ballet, hip pop, contemporary dance, and various folk dances from different countries. In the 19 performances, dancers strictly followed the systematic rules of each dance genre such as Rumba and Jive in order to be qualified for the competitions. Furthermore, we observed that the conspicuous display of spins, flexibility, and lifts in the Chinese performance was construed as the object of knowledge that constitutes the official criteria upon which skill assessment and judging are based. Spins and flexibility are generally attributes commonly indicative of highly skilled dancers (McMains 2015). The extensive use of spins and flexibility not only displayed advanced skills, but more importantly constructed a dominant discourse that subjects Chinese female bodies to Western dancing skills and techniques that define the ‘winning qualities’.

However, lifts present an interesting case. Lifts are generally restricted in DanceSport competitions; yet showdance rules are more lenient and allow dancers to incorporate lifts innovatively. Fifteen couple dancers in our analysis integrated lifts into their performances, and some choreographed them in ways that countered the dominant discourse of Chinese women as submissive to men. The female dancer in the performance Us, for example, performed a ‘male’ role in leading and guiding the movements. To be more specific, female dancer-initiated actions and controlled timing, directions, and movements throughout the performance. In addition, there was a lift where the female dancer opened her legs and split her weight between her two feet, revealing that female dancers can support their male partners to complete vulnerable actions and display in the spotlight (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Us performed by Tao Wang and Xiaoyun Zheng in the 2013 CBDF creative showdance competition.

Role-settings

The role-settings assigned to Chinese female dancers represent actions that are inherently tied to gender roles within Chinese social culture. This type of action seemingly employs a strategy that normalises the qualities and characteristics attributed to a ‘good’ woman in Chinese society. For example, in the dance performances of In the Mood for Love and Together Again after the War, both female dancers promoted the ideals of a ‘virtuous’ wife, a departure from the typical seductive portrayals often associated with Latin Dance. In the former performance, the female dancer portrayed a wife who sacrificed her own happiness, remaining in a tragic marriage despite her husband’s infidelity. In the latter one, the dancer depicted a wife’s unwavering commitment through her performance of anxious anticipation and waiting for her husband’s return from the front lines during a war. These characterisations in both dance performances can arguably be rooted in a residual Confucianism, in which the virtues of marital obedience and devotion to one’s husband as essential elements of etiquette and moral conduct for women can be found (Zhang and Yuting 2019). The selection of these roles for female dancers is not arbitrary; instead, it reflects the operation of non-discursive practices situated within love and family relationships, with their representations further reproducing traditional Confucian ideals of Chinese femininity as docile domestic wives.

Materializations/physical objects

Costumes and stylings

Stage costumes are usually worn to provide the audience with visual stimuli and deliver information regarding characters, in harmony with themes, music, and stage setting (Kim and Choy 2009). The utilisation of costumes and stylings in these performances is integral to material practices as to what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable for Chinese female DanceSport dancers. The regular costumes for female Standard dancers include ball gowns with as many sparkling gems and rhinestones as possible and a pair of close-toed satin court shoes with high heels (Marion 2008). In International Latin Dance, female dancers usually wear open-toed high-heel dance shoes and choose outfits that are slinky and scanty with numerous shimmering decorations to reveal their well-sculpted physiques and create wild and seductive roles (Picart 2012). In addition, Chinese female dancers also displayed artificially darkened skin by using self-tanning products. This, again, subjects Chinese female dancing bodies to Western feminist aesthetic norms.

Moreover, the Chinese female dancers integrated material aspects that represent unique characteristics of Chinese culture. This was achieved mainly through the shaping of designs and decorations, and the choice of colours. For instance, in Together Again after the War, Chen Bailu,⁷ Campus, Life is But a Dream, and In the Mood for Love, female dancers chose Mao suits and Cheongsam as their costume style. More specifically, Cheongsam represents a distinctive form of the traditional attire of Chinese women. It was popular from the 1920s to 1940s (Li 2015). Since the 1980s, amid a resurgence of emphasis on Chinese traditional culture within Mainland China and the global expansion of media representations of fashion and fashion shows, Cheongsam has been celebrated as a symbolic cultural icon of Chinese women’s attire, gaining recognition and prominence worldwide (Mao 2009). In these performances, Cheongsam was blended with elements of DanceSport attire, featuring tight-fitting designs and high slits extending up to the thigh, which served to highlight the dancers’ finely sculpted female physiques (Figure 3). This, interestingly, constructs a discourse that positions Chinese female dancing bodies at the intersection of Western feminist ideals and Chinese cultural identity.

Figure 3. Together again after the war performed by Mengjia Cui and Yulin Jiang in the 2015 CBDF creative showdance competition.

Stage props

In 19 showdance performances, we identified that 20 stage props were used in 15 dance pieces. Stage props can signify a specific location or place, character type, historical moment, or societal context. The interpretation of such information conveyed through these props depends on the knowledge shared by both performers and spectators. In this sense, stage props occur as material formations that the public can think of, speak with, and respond to. For instance, a big red silk flower paired with a red silk rope was utilised in the dance performance of Marriage (Figure 4). Both physical objects symbolised a traditional Chinese wedding that connected the groom and the bride. However, when stage props are organised in a particular manner, new meanings may emerge. Upon closer examination of where the red rope was fastened, it became evident that it was tied around the waist of the female dancer (the bride), with the male dancer (the groom) holding the other end of the rope in his hand. In this choreographed performance, the red silk rope thus not only symbolised the marital ties between husband and wife but also subtly represented the discourse of docile and male-appendage bodies imposed upon the wife by her husband and a patriarchal society. Furthermore, it can be (re)interpreted as a symbolic call to challenge and resist outdated gender norms from the viewpoint of contemporary women.

Figure 4. Marriage performed by Shuai Wang and Xiufeng Guo in the 2013 CBDF creative showdance competition.

In the next section, we synthesise the five discursive, non-discursive, and material choreographic elements and further discuss how the performances of Chinese female dancers reproduce/interrupt Western DanceSport power/knowledge formations as well as bring into a calculation of ‘innovative female’ in ‘transforming’ the female dancer bodies and the Chinese DanceSport world.

Discussion: Western and localised dispositives of Chinese DanceSport

In the above analysis of the discursive, non-discursive, and materialisation choreographic elements (narratives/themes, dance genres and acts, role-settings, costumes and stylings, and stage props), it appears that Western dancing knowledge and Chinese cultural/political norms and values have intersected into a strategy for Chinese female DanceSport dancers to perform certain identities. This then leads us to interrogate the practices of the Chinese female DanceSport dancers constituted by the interrelationship of perplexing forms of power and knowledge. As previously noted, the dispositives comprise heterogeneous discursive and non-discursive elements but the interpretation of those dispositive elements is inherently linked to a discourse analysis that produces meanings and knowledge (Jäger 2001).

Western DanceSport power/knowledge: ‘standardized’ and ‘advanced’ skills and femininity aesthetics

We posit that the performances of Chinese female dancers perpetuate the discourse of ‘standardized’ and ‘advanced’ Western DanceSport technical skills in a Chinese DanceSport competition context. This includes Chinese female dancers adhering to Western standard techniques and practices of dance genres and movements. For example, six couples from the Standard Dance category and thirteen couples from the Latin Dance category selected standardised movements from each category and strictly followed the conventional mechanisms of dance steps. In addition to standardised movements, flexibility, spins, and lifts were frequently used because they were considered as ‘advanced’ skills that would help Chinese females achieve higher scores from judges and more applause from international audiences. These non-discursive practices may suggest that Western dancing techniques act as a form of ‘anatomical knowledge’ as to how the challenging corporeal vocabulary can be physically achieved and further become normalised within Chinese DanceSport competitions (such as those organised by the CBDF) as the primary standards for winning.

In addition to dancing techniques, the choice of Chinese female dancers to adopt Western costumes and styles, aligning with Western feminine aesthetics, suggests that Western knowledge formations within the anatomopolitical power diagram extend beyond physical movements to include the presentation and representation of Chinese female dancing bodies. In DanceSport, beauty aesthetics parallel athletic competitions (Picart 2012). Female dancers, for example, usually wear 3- to 3.5-inch satin high-heel shoes to excessively pursue arched feet and straight knees – for not only the purpose of winning competitions but also visually extending legs and hence presenting a good ‘feminized’ body ratio. In our results, all 19 female dancers wore high heels and clothing that accentuated their limbs in accordance with such Western ‘feminized’ taste, regardless of whether the theme of their performance was about an ancient Chinese story or if the dancers portrayed an old woman or a little girl as the characters. For example, Chinese female dancers wore slinky dresses, slit skirts, backless tops, and semi-opaque black or brown silk stockings – aesthetically evoking Western feminine ideals for DanceSport dancers: well-sculpted bodies with long necks and limbs, straight backs, and attractive appearances. The way in which Chinese female dancers dress resonates well with the interpretation of a Chinese reproduction of restrictive ideals of Western femininity – ‘highlighting the erotic or aesthetic function of the female body’ (Yang 2011, 337). This further raises a growing concern of ‘cultural colonialism and aesthetic injustice’ (Dalaqua 2022, 18), which highlights the perpetuation of specific cultural practices and norms embedded in Western discourses while stifles individualised, localised, and private aesthetic sensibilities, preventing the exploration and appreciation of diverse cultural expressions (Boal 2019).⁸

‘Innovative docile bodies’

For some feminist scholars, Foucault’s work often prompts a consideration of the limitations of individual freedom, for it offers a framework not only for understanding a normalising society as a consequence of technologies of power but also for engaging in critical inquiry to explore potential alternatives and forms of active resistance (see Seppä 2004). In our case, Chinese female dancers’ choreographic dispositives might reveal certain unique and nuanced power relations that create a discourse of ‘innovative docile bodies’. More specifically, we focus on how Chinese female dancers strategically utilise Western dance movements and techniques to navigate and potentially negotiate with traditional Chinese norms. Meanwhile, we also elucidate the process through which the integration of physical objects emblematic of Chinese culture into Western dance techniques might effectively subject Chinese female dancers to a docile culturalized and politicised body – which perhaps represents a new form of biopolitical power operated through a framework of renewed nationalism, subtly influencing and (re)shaping female dancers’ bodies, performances, and identities within this cultural and political interchange.

To begin with, Chinese female dancers displayed artificially darkened skin in their performances by using self-tanning products. This is particularly interesting because tanned bodies are associated with paradoxical meanings across cultures. Chinese (and East Asian) culture tends to favour and privilege fair and pale skin tones both historically and today, and women with dark phenotypes are usually considered by Chinese men as less attractive (Xie and Zhang 2013). However, in modern Western consumer societies, the application of artificial tanning has assumably been associated with ‘positive’ connotations for women: one connotates ‘an upper-middle class taste and an affluent lifestyle’ while the other represents the emancipation of ‘the white self of its pale appearance … to achieve a mythical seductive authenticity’ (Vannini and McCright 2004, 310, 314). As such, tanned skin tone signifies not only racialised and classed complexions, but also becomes an indicator of female beauty and sexual attractiveness in modern Western cultural discourses (Frost 2005) – antithetical to traditional Chinese phenotypical norms privileging fair skin for women. For a professional DanceSport dancer, artificial tanning is then inherently associated with a well-crafted discourse of ‘healthy glow and athletic body image’ and ‘attractive physical appearances’ (McMains 2001). It may seem obvious to Western critics that artificial tanning practices are manifestations of sexuality and a concrete example of normalising/subjecting bodies to stereotyped gender expectations. Nevertheless, for Chinese female dancers, the paradoxical connotations of tanned bodies in Western and Chinese cultures may create a possibility that the practice of artificial tanning is not simply a conformality to Western aesthetic power/knowledge but more importantly offers an alternative means of transforming/liberating the female bodies in patriarchal Chinese society by resisting and disturbing the stereotypical ways of representing and reproducing Chinese beauties.

Moreover, upon initial examination of the narratives, role-setting, and dance act practices, there appears to be a discrepancy between the roles assigned to Chinese female dancers and how they perform and interpret the roles in dance actions. For example, in various performances, Chinese female dancers often portrayed classic Chinese love stories where they epitomised roles of loyal and docile wives to show and promote Confucian doctrines attributed to Chinese women (‘female virtues’), such as allegiance, chastity, obedience, sacrifice, self-restraint, and endurance (Pang-White 2016). However, the performers subtly subverted these norms during their dance performances. While enacting roles that required them to display traditional virtues, they simultaneously assumed traditionally ‘male’ roles within the dance, leading movements and executing techniques, such as lifts, typically performed by male dancers. This nuanced approach, perhaps, allows Chinese female dancers to strategically confront and negotiate with the established Chinese norms, highlighting a unique form of resistance against traditional Chinese gender roles and expectations.

While we see the potential of certain resistance from Chinese female dancers – who strategically utilise Western aesthetics and dancing performances to negotiate with the traditional Chinese norms – we argue that Chinese female dancing bodies may still be under control via a novel form of biopolitical power that is intricately embedded and produced within and through cultural political practices of ‘national pride’. To this end, we observe how specific Chinese physical objects – Mao suits and Cheongsam—were incorporated into DanceSport costumes in some performances. More specifically, the juxtaposition of Chinese traditional clothing and garments with Western DanceSport movements gives rise to a new aesthetic practice known as ‘zhongxi hebi’ (the integration of Chinese and Western elements) (Lu and Gagnier 2015). On the surface, we might make a sweeping assumption that this strategic integration of Chinese cultural elements into Western techniques and skills serves to reconstruct the ‘innovativeness’ of Chinese female dancers, creating a dynamic synthesis that showcases their ability to blend Chinese and Western influences in a compelling manner. As Liu and Fan (2012) argue, ‘[Chinese female dancers’] blending [Chinese] national style into costumes for title dance in sports dance … will be conducive to the development and innovation of sports dances in China, as well as the inheritance and promotion of traditional Chinese national cultures’ (62). However, if we connect this ‘hybridization’ of Western and Chinese elements and practices to the broader socio-cultural and political environment of China, it is possible that the combination of two cultural practices might actually represent a new strategic control over Chinese female bodies by the Chinese state in manipulating their attire during dance performances. That is, the incorporation and promotion of Chinese costumes and dresses would easily subject Chinese female individuals to a political ‘grand narrative’ associated with the pride of Chinese culture that has increasingly become an essential part of the ongoing Chinese nationalism and ‘cultural security’ discourse promoted by the current Xi Jinping government. Consequently, Chinese female dancers might engage in performances that, once popularised, form specific grids of intelligibility about performative ‘Chineseness’ and utilisation of Chinese cultural elements as a means to counteract Western political forces and controls (wherein the oppressions of Chinese patriarchal structures and norms imposed on females would be downplayed or even forgotten) – to re-evaluate and rethink their bodies. By way of a politicised and culturalized process, the localised and diversified female bodily representations would possibly be stifled, and new docile bodies would be produced (similar to dieting and cosmetic surgery). This perhaps can further circle back to discussions about how disciplinary anatomopolitics dominate the body, for as Markula (2004, 2003, 2014, 2020a, 2020b) has argued, in the context of dance and fitness the anatomopolitical power diagram imposes direct control over female bodies through various disciplinary techniques such as surveillance and self-surveillance, invisible gaze, mirrored walls, and peer scrutiny. This form of control, she continues, is ‘operated through multiple locations, remained invisible, yet imposed a form of conduct on the ways humans used space and time to move their bodies’ (2014, 149). It is in our case that the bodies of Chinese female dancers are sophisticatedly operated and strategically sustained in the spheres of political and cultural processes, where incorporating traditional Chinese attires and physical objects emblematic of Chinese culture into Western dancing performances becomes a technique of normalisation to (re)construct disciplined and docile nationalised Chinese bodies.

Conclusion

In this study, we critically examine the dispositive choreographic elements – including discursive practices (narratives/themes), non-discursive practices (dance genres and acts, role-settings), and material objects (costumes and stylings, stage props) – articulated in and through the bodily performances of Chinese female dancers. Following Foucault’s power/knowledge, dispositives, and disciplinary technique ideas, we interrogate how the performances of Chinese female dancers in DanceSport reveal an ongoing process wherein the Chinese female dancing body is operated and produced in and through manifold forms of Western DanceSport and Chinese socio-cultural and political power/knowledges. Our study resonates with what Foucault (1997) once stated: dispositives and discourses emerge from ‘an anonymous and polymorphous will to knowledge, capable of transformations and caught up in an identifiable play of dependence’ (12).

Throughout our analysis and findings, we argue that the Western DanceSport discourses are visible in (re)shaping the practices of Chinese female dancers by 1) subjecting Chinese female dancing bodies to the scientificity of Western dancing skills and gender norms; yet 2) providing an alternative avenue for Chinese female dancers to disturb/resist the stereotypical representation imposed upon females by the Chinese patriarchal structure. Meanwhile, however, the bodies of Chinese female dancers are meticulously manoeuvred and strategically maintained within the realms of political and cultural processes. In these spheres, the integration of traditional Chinese attire and physical objects emblematic of Chinese culture into Western dance performances serves as a technique of normalisation to (re)construct disciplined and docile bodies that are imbued with Chinese national identity.

Our findings may have three implications. First, we make contributions to the conduct of qualitative research by employing a dispositive analysis that offers qualitative inquirers a comprehensive lens through which to scrutinise multifaceted relationships (heterogeneities) between discourse, materiality, and action surrounding female bodies (cf., Lafrance 2011; Tynan and McEvilly 2017). Second, the performances of Chinese female dancers do indeed reveal new possibilities of transformation within the realm of dance – while Chinese female dancers strategically employ controversial Western practices (e.g. artificial tanning) to confront and challenge Chinese stereotypes of females and meanwhile use Chinese cultural elements to redefine Western dancing knowledge. However, we need to be cautious that this does not mean that Chinese female dancers have full autonomy to navigate and transcend cultural boundaries and identities while challenging established conventions. We urge further exploration and interrogation of the ethics of ‘what not-male-centered versions of aesthetics of the self’ (Seppä 2004) and ‘what not-Western-centered versions of aesthetics of the self’ for Chinese female dancers and broadly the Chinese female subject. We should carefully reflect on and re-examine the intricate complexities of global sensibilities that arise from the juxtaposition of Western and native (Chinese) patriarchies with Western feminism, for as Savigliano (1995) illustrated in Tango and Political Economy of Emotion, ‘Third World’ women’s reification is problematically reproduced by Western feminists as exotic objects ‘who need to be enlightened’ to fit into ‘civilized forms’ of global feminist movement (284).

Lastly, and while previous research has examined bodily experiences and the dancing body to the formation of identity and physical and aesthetic culture, our study of Chinese DanceSport dancers adds another layer to understanding the performance of femininity in Chinese society. While the dancers are actively involved in improving and displaying the technologies, knowledge, and experiences that exist in the on-stage and off-stage dancing domain, it is also the case that these representations and interpretations are essential components of promulgating dominant praxis of appropriate female dancers, identified women, and featured feminine images affected by Chinese social, political, and cultural powers. The construction of gender identities is a continuous and incomplete process related to certain social and cultural contexts, and thereby this study could provide a critical analysis of dispositives consisting of discursive and non-discursive practices as well as materialisations about how other cultures are incorporated into Chinese dance performances when once opened China is closing to the world (cf., Harrison et al. 2022).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shushan Dai

Shushan Dai is a PhD student in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University. Her research and teaching areas are cultural politics, gendered issues in sports, and international sporting cultures.

Hanhan Xue

Hanhan Xue is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University. Her research and teaching focuses on the field of strategic management as it relates to international business for professional sport organizations as well as emerging esports industry.

Michael D. Giardina

Michael D. Giardina is Professor of Qualitative Inquiry and Physical Cultural Studies in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University. He is the author or editor of more than 25 books, including The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research (6th ed.; co-edited with Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, and Gaile S. Cannella; Sage, 2023) and The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Sport & Physical Culture (co-edited with Michele K. Donnelly and Devra J. Waldman; Sage, forthcoming). He is currently the editor of the journal Qualitative Inquiry.

Joshua I. Newman

Joshua I. Newman is the College of Education, Health, and Human Science’s Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Sport, Media, and Cultural Studies in the Department of Sport Management at Florida State University. His research is primarily focused on issues related to social inequalities, cultural politics, and political economics and ecologies of sport and physical activity.

Notes

1. Although there is no agreement on the time when DanceSport was initially introduced to China, the management and rapid development of this Western dance style in China can be traced back to the establishment of the first national DanceSport organisation, the China Ballroom Dance Federation (CBDF), in 1986 (Dai et al. 2022). In 1987, the first DanceSport national tournament was held in Beijing featuring 200-coupled competitors primarily from Beijing and Guangzhou (CBDF 2016). In 1993, a world DanceSport tournament was held in China, which was the first time a Chinese organisation was acknowledged by the World Dance & Dance Sport Council (WD/DSC) and the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF, currently known as the World DanceSport Federation) to hold a world-class DanceSport competition (Wu 2016). In 2020, the quantity and scale of DanceSport national championships expanded to more than 4,000 competitors from all over China (X. Liu and Ya 2021). Gradually, Chinese DanceSport organisations extended cooperation from dance- or art-related associations to government, TV stations, universities, and companies to draw more attention to and profit from the public (Dai et al. 2022).

2. The term ‘cultural security’, for example, has particularly been highlighted in recent Chinese government documents for developing a cultural system that involves ‘shielding Chinese culture and values from foreign threats as well as enhancing the ability of Chinese culture and values to compete for international influence by maintaining their relevance and dynamism’ (Edney 2015, 264).

3. Agamben noted, however, that Foucault does not provide a formal definition of the term himself (Bussolini 2010; Markula 2023).

4. In a different yet pertinent context, Clark and Markula (2017) interrogate the realm of recreational ballet dance through the lens of Foucauldian discipline and docility. Their research elucidates how ballet studios evolve into a space of discipline where recreational ballet dancers utilise material practices to produce and exercise power relations.

5. To articulate key information, we searched all of the prized showdance performances in CBDF Creative Showdance Competitions. Through the search, performances in the 2nd (2013) and 3rd (2015) CBDF Creative Showdance Competition are publicised in online platforms with widespread. Additionally, there were large participants in the two competitions. For instance, the 2nd CBDF Creative Showdance Competition featured more than 2500 participants from over 20 provinces and 107 delegations (CBDF 2021). Therefore, we decided to draw on the prized performances in the 2nd (2013) and 3rd (2015) CBDF Creative Showdance Competition.

6. In 2013, the competition was held in Chongqing, and the CBDF mainly cooperated with Chongqing Broadcasting Group (the propaganda organisation of the Communist Party of China, led by the Publicity Department of the Municipal Committee) (CBDF 2021). The 2015 CBDF Creative Showdance Competition was held with the partnership primarily between the CBDF and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, including renowned judges from the dance world and featuring Dance (a core journal held by the Chinese Dancers Association) in the scoring work (Tang 2016).

7. This and all other frame/screen grabs within this article are captures of digital streams (on the Youku and Tencent video) and the fair use for academic purposes here is consistent with prevailing media studies standards whereby no permission is needed for frame grabs, for anything originally used for publicity purposes (e.g. movie poster), or for objects (e.g. book covers) when the image is being used for scholarly analysis.

8. This position is consistent with prior findings by Seo et al. (2023) in relation to the racialisation of U.S. figure skater Michelle Kwan and Markula’s 1995 research on how publicised and mediatised discourses consistently generate contradictions surrounding the ideal female body as an impossible standard of shapely yet firm, sexy yet toned, skinny yet strong. These examples perhaps provide a further elaboration of the political and cultural reasons (i.e. aesthetic imperialism; mediatised consumption power) that underpin the prevailing Western aesthetic discourse that potentially shape what the bodies and appearances of Chinese female dances should look like.