UCLA

In this dissertation, I explore postmodern choreographic engagements of pregnant bodies in the US over the last 70 years. I discuss how choreographers negotiate identification with the look of their pregnant bodies to maintain a sense of integrity as artists and to control representations of their gender and physical abilities while pregnant. I consider the utility for pregnant artists of filmic techniques, ironic mimicry of feminine stereotypes, obstruction or re-direction of the audience’s gaze, and refusal to be recognized as any familiar type of “woman.” I study how artists reimagine and restructure rhythm, duration, and spatial locations of movement based on perceptions of their pregnant bodies. I analyze fraught collaborations between artists with divergent experiences of pregnant bodies and pregnancy needs. I problematize choreographic processes surrounding pregnancy that present pregnancy as an experience indissociable from constructions of sex and gender, and I challenge and historically contextualize ideas about the “naturalness” of pregnancy, birthing, and motherhood. Finally, I examine dances exploring radical physical transformation inspired by experiences of pregnancy, and I consider how the artists of these works use choreography to create conditions and community that support their experiences of personal metamorphoses, that allow them to have queer orientations towards pregnancy, and that help them to practice care towards themselves in ways that they deem significant and otherwise unavailable. Across chapters, the artists discussed include Anna Halprin, Trisha Brown, Twyla Tharp, Sandy Jamrog, Jane Comfort, Jody Oberfelder, Johanna Boyce, Miguel Guti�rrez, Yanira Castro, No�mie LaFrance, Hana van der Kolk, Jennie MaryTai Liu, and Meg Foley. By presenting their bodies in performance, these artists demonstrate how their experiences surrounding pregnancy intersect not only with their artform and its history but also with their personal experiences of race, gender, and sexual identification. I argue that choreography offers them tools that are alternative to medicine (or other forms of social representation) for understanding what/how pregnant bodies do and feel and what they can mean for individuals and their communities. The works within these pages invite readers to see dancing bodies and pregnant bodies in new ways and for their potential to manifest new possibilities.