| Description |
Contemporary American cultural hegemony often dictates notions of innocence and imposes them onto children. When we are not able to locate the child figure as queer, we may reinforce institutionalized heteronormative standards of binary thinking. Simultaneously, we limit the identity space from which a child can grow, and constrain the directions in which they can mature. The re-imagination of the child as a queer figure allows for a cultural disruption that could empower many people to align themselves with different models of innocence and adolescence. By moving sideways, the queer child scandalizes current assumptions of the American child. Drawing on Queer theory, this thesis examines the parallels to philosophical and literary Romanticist ideals of the later 19th century, and attempts to define how they shape my choreographic process and aesthetic used here. Through the postanalysis and deconstruction of my choreographic works, "The Dead Tree" and "The Hopefuls", this thesis will elucidate the ways in which choreographic works may function as a metaphor to our understanding of childhood innocence and offer advocacy for the potential danger it has for the psyche. In this work, I advocate for the collective re-imagination of childhood as irreducible, while simultaneously challenging the essentialities of children as innocent vessels, punished for our shortcomings. |
