Geographies of Gender: Social Politics of the Partner Dance Venue

Abstract

The typical partner dance venue will have a standardised layout conducive to the space's function as a marketplace in which attendees can display their own bodies as commodities. Dancers in the venue will have invested time and money in training, clothing, and grooming to demonstrate the value of their bodies according to the dance's typically heteronormative standards. The reward for successful marketing is physical access to other similarly well-marketed bodies. The social enforcement of this system occurs primarily at the moment between songs, when large numbers of attendees engage in a simultaneous process of partner selection.