Communications Intern, Annie Muise, recently interviewed Maggie Cee and J Michael Winward, the co-founders of Dancing Queerly. Dancing Queerly is an annual dance festival, featuring workshops, mixers, panel discussions, and performances by and for the LGBTQIA+ community, its friends and allies. Both Maggie Cee and J Michael Winward will be teaching at the Festival of Us, You, We & Them with Dancing Queerly. Maggie Cee will be teaching Ballet is for Everyone! on June 22 at 5:15 PM. J Michael Winward will be teaching Sunday Soirée Disco Tea Dance on June 23 at 3:30 Pm.
Q: Can you tell us more about Dancing Queerly, its history and how it came to be?
A: We met while dancing together in the 2016 production of Peter DiMuro’s Gumdrops and the Funny Uncle, where we discovered a mutual passion for sharing dance with a wide range of audiences.
In June of 2017, we co-produced our first concert, A Queer Time and Place, at The Dance Complex in Central Square. We presented the work of three queer choreographers, as well as one guest artist each night. The success of that performance showed us that there was demand in Boston for dance performance that reflects and/or embodies queer experiences.
While planning that show, we discovered that we are big dreamers and starting talking about adding workshops and community events, which is just what we did for 2018!
Q: How has producing Dancing Queerly helped you artistically and professionally?
A: The festival has benefited our careers as solo performers by connecting us to a community of LGBTQIA+ choreographers. We have connected with LGBTQIA+ artists locally, nationally, and internationally. Artists in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Minnesota, and New York reached out about similar projects they are working on. By continuing to network with queer dance artists and advocates in Boston and around the country, we aim to promote queer dance practice and performance within the greater dance/arts ecology.
Q: What inspired you to create Ballet is for Everyone?
A (Maggie Cee): I first presented Ballet is for Everyone at a Boston Skillshare. Then in 2008, the Femme Show (the variety show I produce about queer femme identity) was touring and performing at a lot queer youth conferences and leadership events. We would perform and do a talk back, but organizers also wanted more interactive workshops, so I offered Ballet is for Everyone and it was a hit! Since it’s often a 1 time workshop, I focus on teaching fun and accessible movements and finding joy together! I often use similar imagery to what I use when I teach young children, which is different from how I would approach a more formal adult beginner ballet course, whether it was queer specific or not. It can often be a healing place for people to connect to their bodies in a different way.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who thinks they are not welcome to the ballet community?
A (Maggie Cee): We’re lucky to live in a city with lots of options for teen and adult dancers at any level to try ballet. My advice would be to ask around for recommendations (I’m always popping up on the Boston Queer exchange Facebook group to share my opinions on this), wear what makes you comfortable, and have an idea what you want to get out of it.
The ballet world is changing. It’s not perfect and it’s probably a little behind the rest of the world, but as a teacher I know that dance studios at all levels are learning to accommodate transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming students. Star ballet dancer, Sergei Polunin made some terrible homophobic, transphobic and fat-shaming comments on social media recently – but in response the Paris Opera Ballet uninvited him from a guesting contract. That’s progress – and I encourage everyone to follow James Whiteside and watch this amazing video that’s in part a rebuttal to Sergei.
Q: What is the relationship between social dance and the queer community and how can we use social dance to create safe spaces and strengthen community?
A (J Michael Winward): In a sense, social dance has been part of queer community building from queer-time immemorial. Anytime queer people gather and dance: that’s social dancing. But with social partner dancing, one assumes the role of the leader, and one the role of the follower. And in many mainstream social (ballroom) dance spaces, it is assumed that “a gentleman leads, and a lady follows”. The language and the expectations are often gendered and prescribed, leaving little to no room for genderqueer people to participate comfortably. If social partner dancing is to serve the queer community, it needs to happen in spaces where one can opt to lead or follow: where leading and following can be encouraged as skill-based, and not necessarily gender-based activities.
Q: What are you most looking forward to about the Festival of Us, You, We, & Them?
A (Maggie Cee): Sweating it out in the Dance Complex with joy, love and respect for our differences.
A (J Michael Winward): I’m looking forward to sharing one of my FAVORITE social dance styles with the community, and rocking out to a wicked fun playlist.
Q: How does your class/presentation celebrate dance, movement and all arts in the spirit of The Festival of Us, You, We & Them?
A (Maggie Cee): Ballet is for everyone is a celebration of dance and joy and I can’t wait to share it! I love how The Festival of Us You, We & Them brings dance out into Central Square so people can stumble upon it. I hope at least a few people are inspired to try my class spontaneously!
A (J Michael Winward): The Sunday Soiree Disco Tea Dance combines two of my favorite things: creating space for queer dance, and making social ballroom dance accessible to anyone who wants to learn it. And as Maggie says, I love the idea of people stumbling upon it and getting swept up in a whirlwind of sequins. Metaphorically, of course. Oh wow, just thinking about it now–this is gonna be really fun.
—
Dancing Queerly’s 2019 final performances will be held June 28 & 29 at 8PM featuring work by LaWhore Vagistan, Em Papineau and Sofia Engelman, Pampi, Toby MacNutt, QWAM, Lilly Rose Valore, and Nick M. Daniels! Click HERE to get your tickets!
