How to Make Dances in an Epidemic: Tracking Choreography in the Age of AIDS

by David Gere

David Gere, who came of age as a dance critic at the height of the AIDS epidemic, offers the first book to examine the interplay of AIDS and choreography in the United States, specifically in relation to gay men. The time he writes about is one of extremes. A life-threatening medical syndrome is spreading, its transmission linked to sex. Blame is settling on gay men. What is possible in such a highly charged moment, when art and politics coincide? Gere expands the definition of choreography to analyze not only theatrical dances but also ACT-UP protests and the unfurling of the Names Project AIDS quilt. These exist on a continuum in which dance, protest, and wrenching emotional expression have become essentially indistinguishable. Gere offers a gripping portrait of gay male choreographers struggling to cope with AIDS and its meanings.

Genres: LGBT, History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2004

Reviews

[Kennedy Butterfield]

Love these ideas about what makes choreography/corporealities powerful and had a huge perspective shift on men from last chapter on sex and death and the divine. The intersection of dance and queerness is also an interesting space to consider fear of fluid transmission which to me feels all over the place, outside of an AIDS context as well.

I didn't find the chapter on melancholia, grief, etc. to be thought provoking and I really struggled with the structure of this book. Reading performances felt very burdensome because of the nature of performance v the nature of reading. It was an interesting experience for me to try to understand a performance through the written language another person uses to describe it, but I'm still not a fan of reading dances which was basically half the book.

[David]

fascinating read for those interested in cultural responses to HIV/AIDS and the impact of HIV/AIDS on one how we create, view, and otherwise experience dance!

The author also speaks extensively about the blurring of lines between dance and political protest in the age of AIDS.