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ABSTRACT
This article explores the experiences of two women choreographers working with modernist dance forms in Ireland during the early twentieth century. Through an analysis of reviews, photos, and archival film, I demonstrate how these women navigated the moral panic surrounding modernist dance forms in early-to-mid twentieth century Ireland. I argue that the obstacles these women negotiated were directly related to societal norms and legislation centered on kinesthetic control of women’s bodies and sexuality. These norms resulted in associations of modern styles of dancing with improper sexuality – meaning any sexuality outside the confines of heteronormative married relationships – and suspicion of any dancing that was seen to undermine the ideals of Irish womanhood as a uniquely chaste identity.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Ferriter, Occasions of Sin, 100.
2 Ibid., 4.
3 Mulrooney, Irish Moves, 4.
4 Ferriter, Occasions of Sin, 7–8.
5 Preston, Modernism’s Mythic Pose, 59–60, 144–7.
6 MacPherson, Women and the Irish Nation, 2.
7 Foley, Step Dancing in Ireland, 133.
8 “Classical Dance Exhibition,” Evening Herald, May 9, 1925.
9 Shay, “Wrapped in Greek Robes of Spirituality,” 22–3.
10 O’Connor, The Irish Dancing, 42.
11 Foley, Step Dancing in Ireland, 137.
12 “The Dorothy Forrest Trio,” Irish Times, May 12, 1925.
13 See discussion of Erina Brady for examples.
14 “The Dorothy Forrest Trio.”
15 Daly, Done Into Dance, 100, 103.
16 Evening Herald, May 28, 1926.
17 Ibid.
18 Weihman, “Doing My Bit for Ireland,” 243–4.
19 Connolly, The Irish Women’s Movement, 62.
20 “Belfast-Dublin Variety,” Irish Press, October 31, 1936.
21 “Orchestra Pieces with Gaelic Motifs,” Irish Independent, August 28, 1937; “Ballet Week at the Gaiety,” Irish Independent, March 2, 1943; “Two New Irish Ballets,” Irish Press, October 20, 1939.
22 “Gaelic Ballet Competitions,” Irish Times, February 24, 1940.
23 G.F., “An Ceol Cumann in Gaelic Dance-Drama,” Irish Press, November 7, 1939.
24 “Irish Ballet at the Gaiety,” Evening Herald, January 26, 1942.
25 “Gaelic Ballet Competitions,” Irish Times.
26 “Production of Gaelic Ballet,” Irish Press, November 4, 1938; “Ballet Week at Gaiety;” “Ballet Performance at Gaiety,” Irish Times, October 26, 1943.
27 “Feis Atha Cliath Cup for Mime: A New National Art,” Irish Independent, February 24, 1940.
28 Ibid.
29 Irish Independent, November 2, 1936.
30 D.S., “Superb Ballet Music,” Irish Independent, March 4, 1943.
31 “Irish Ballet at the Gaiety;” T.W., “‘Cathair Linn’ Ballet,” Irish Press, March 5, 1943.
32 Mulrooney, Irish Moves, 85.
33 “Leader Page Parade,” Irish Independent, November 29, 1941.
34 “New Dublin School of Dance Art”; “Dancing,” National and Leinster Times, January 30, 1943; “Physical Culture,” Kilkenny People, February 5, 1944.
35 “Barefoot Dancer at Mansion House,” Irish Times, December 6, 1941.
36 “Etchings,” Irish Press, June 21, 1940; P.T., “Excellent Mimes,” Irish Press, March 12, 1941; “Cosmopolitan Soiree,” Irish Independent, January 27, 1945; Feis Atha Cliath means Feis Dublin. This was a dance competition hosted annually in Dublin.
37 “A New Dancer,” Waterford News and Star, March 20, 1942.
38 Erina Brady, correspondence, qtd. in Mulrooney, Irish Moves, 86.
39 Mulrooney. “Erina Brady.”
40 Report by James McGuire, June 23, 1941, file G2/3506, Irish Military Archives.
41 O’Connor, Emerging Voices, 87.
42 Report by M.J. Wymes, May 6, 1941, file G2/3506, Irish Military Archives.
43 “Dance Recital,” Irish Times, December 10, 1941.
44 June Fryer qtd. in Mulrooney, Irish Moves, 85.
45 Ibid., 106, 108.
46 The idea that women dancing should be done under supervision can be seen most clearly in the Public Dance Halls Act, passed in 1935. The act “required organizers of dances to get the sanction of clergy, police and judiciary.” These requirements essentially gave the church and state control over where, how, and what type of dancing occurred in public and thus aimed to restrict public dance practices to those dance forms officials deemed proper; Ferriter, Occasions of Sin, 179.
47 Mulrooney, “Patrick Scott and the Dancers.”
48 Barbara O’Connor calls this rhetoric connecting women’s dancing bodies to sin the “women/dance/sin nexus.” She notes the perception of dancing as sinful, and its relationship to women’s sexuality, is recorded as far back as the sixteenth century in Ireland, only solidifying further as the Catholic Church gained power in Ireland throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. See O’Connor, The Irish Dancing, 43.
49 Mulrooney, 1943 – A Dance Odyssey.
50 Ibid.
51 Ibid.
52 Randall, “Hanya Holm and an American Tanzgemeinschaft,” 83–4.
53 “Barefoot Dancer at Mansion House.”
54 Mulrooney, “Dance Emergency/ Damhsa na hEigeandala Trailer.”
55 Mulrooney, 1943 – A Dance Odyssey.
56 Robinson in Mulrooney, Irish Moves, 91.
57 Daly, Done Into Dance, 13.
58 Preston, Modernism’s Mythic Pose, 145.
59 “Censorship Act,” The Liberator, November 1, 1930.
60 Preston, Modernism’s Mythic Pose, 10–11.
61 Irish sociologist Breda Gray notes that restrictions on Irish women’s bodies, sexualities, and reproductive rights have also been significant motivators for Irish women’s emigration. See Gray, Women and the Irish Diaspora.
62 Srinivasan, Sweating Saris: Indian, 27.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kathryn Holt
Kathryn Holt is an early career scholar whose research crosses the fields of dance studies, women’s studies, and Irish studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Dance Studies from the Ohio State University, where her research focused on dance and the politics of womanhood in Ireland and the Irish diaspora.