Dancing for change: how 1980s dance parties shaped LGBTQ2+ liberation
“When we are on a dance floor, we can experience collective joy and glimpse alternative ways we might live our lives,” says Dr Craig Jennex, an LGBTQ2+ studies researcher at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada. Craig’s passion for music and dance, and how they can create connections, inspire activism and provide a sense of belonging, has led him to research the role of Toronto’s Gay Community Dance Committee in shaping LGBTQ2+ liberation in the city – and the way collective dance experiences can alter our understanding of ourselves and our futures.
Talk like an LGBTQ2+ scholar
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) — an infectious disease caused when the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) weakens a person’s immune system
Cisgender — a gender identity in which a person’s gender corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth (e.g., a woman who was assigned female at birth)
Coalition — a group of individuals or organisations working together towards a common goal
LGBTQ2+ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirited, and other non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities
Liberation — the act of gaining freedom from oppression
Neoliberalism — a political and economic philosophy that focuses on reducing government involvement in people’s lives and promoting free-market capitalism
Queer — odd, strange, unconventional; a term increasingly used to describe a wide spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities that are not exclusively heterosexual or cisgender
What impact does dancing have on political activism? How does it create a shared sense of belonging? And how can collective joy inspire lasting change? In the 1980s, Toronto’s LGBTQ2+ community found answers to these questions on the dance floor. At a time marked by systemic discrimination and the AIDS epidemic, the Gay Community Dance Committee (GCDC) brought people together, raised vital funds for LGBTQ2+ organisations, and inspired collective action. The GCDC dances were not just about having fun – they were about creating a sense of belonging and imagining a better future.
What was the GCDC?
“The GCDC was a volunteer-based, coalition-building organisation that brought together LGBTQ2+ community groups in Toronto to organise large-scale dance parties between 1981 and 1992,” explains Dr Craig Jennex, an LGBTQ2+ scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University. These events were organised by hundreds of volunteers and drew thousands of attendees. Proceeds from the dances supported over 80 community organisations, including the Gay Counselling Centre of Toronto, the AIDS Committee of Toronto, the Lesbian Mothers’ Defence Fund, and Gays and Lesbians of the First Nations.
The GCDC had two main goals: to financially support LGBTQ2+ non-profit organisations and to provide safer social spaces for LGBTQ2+ people to meet. “Every dollar attendees spent at these dances went back into the LGBTQ2+ community,” explains Craig. “By creating dance events focused on community and care, the GCDC built networks of political solidarity and provided lasting financial support to LGBTQ2+ organisations with a wide range of activist goals. These dance parties were a primary source of funding for LGBTQ2+ political activism in Toronto during the 1980s.”
How is Craig studying the history of LGBTQ2+ dance?
Through his research project ‘Liberation on the Dance Floor’, Craig and his team are examining archival resources, including minutes from meetings, news reports about events, photos of GCDC dances and promotional flyers, to piece together the legacy of the GCDC. “The archive is full of smouldering embers of unrealised revolutions,” says Craig. “Through our research, we’ve tried to reignite these flames because we think there are lessons to be learnt from this history.”
One fascinating aspect of the project is the role of music in shaping human connection. “Different types of music encourage different forms of participation,” explains Craig. “For example, our bodily participation in electronic dance music culture is probably different from what we do with our bodies when we are listening to a live folk music performance.” These varied soundscapes do not just entertain – they encourage people to move, connect and imagine themselves as part of something bigger. And different music genres do this in different ways.
What makes Craig’s project truly exciting is its practical approach. “We’ve hosted intergenerational dance parties where activist elders from the GCDC dance with student researchers 50 years younger than them,” says Craig. “This might not sound like conventional academic research, but we’ve learnt just as much through shared experiences of dance, fleeting moments of intimacy, and gestures of care and possibility on the dance floor than we did through analysis of archival materials.”
How did dancing build solidarity in difficult times?
To truly understand the impact of the GCDC, Craig and his team turned to the people who lived it. They have interviewed founding members, DJs, volunteers and attendees, focusing on how these events were organised and how they shaped the LGBTQ2+ community. “The GCDC existed at a challenging time – many interviewees described the 1980s as an ‘unkind era’ of neoliberal reorganisation that made community work ‘difficult, but increasingly necessary’,” explains Craig. “When the AIDS epidemic hit in the mid-1980s, GCDC dances funded AIDS activist organisations that researched the disease and cared for people living with AIDS.” These interviews highlight the role of GCDC dances in supporting the LGBTQ2+ community during a turbulent era. Through these gatherings, people found strength in numbers and created a sense of belonging that transcended the harsh realities of the time.
How did dancing fuel liberation?
GCDC dances were far more than vibrant parties – they were the foundation of the LGBTQ2+ liberation movement in the 1980s. In 12 years, these events raised over $250,000 for community groups fighting for LGBTQ2+ rights. “What has become clear to us through this research is that these dances didn’t just raise funds for important activist projects, they were the foundation on which many of these endeavours were built,” explains Craig. “On the GCDC dance floor, attendees felt like they belonged to a broader political community, felt safe, and were able to imagine what their lives could be like if they accessed these feelings beyond the dance floor.” Therefore, while the financial support generated by the GCDC was incredibly important, the deeper impact came from the social connections these dances created.
How can dance transform politics?
Dancing with others has a unique ability to spark both joy and a desire for change. On the dance floor, people experience a sense of freedom, belonging and connection that can feel like a glimpse into a better world. These brief moments of shared movement can inspire a deeper understanding of what life could look like without the constraints of societal norms. “It’s no surprise, then, that the history of LGBTQ2+ dance is also a history of LGBTQ2+ political formation,” says Craig. “Once we glimpse what is possible – what it means to feel free alongside others marked as ‘deviant’ – we want to experience that more often.”
In the 1980s, GCDC dances offered a safe and welcoming place for individuals to enter political communities. Unlike protests or meetings, which could feel intimidating or unsafe, the dances combined celebration with solidarity, empowering people to imagine and fight for a better future.
Reference
https://doi.org/10.33424/FUTURUM566
© Philip Share
Dr Craig Jennex
Associate Professor of English, Department of English, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Field of research: LGBTQ2+ studies
Research project: Investigating the role of dance in LGBTQ2+ liberation
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Website: www.liberationonthedancefloor.ca
About LGBTQ2+ studies
LGBTQ2+ studies examines the experiences, histories and cultures of LGBTQ2+ people, as well as the social and political movements that have shaped their rights and recognition. Alongside queer theory, LGBTQ2+ studies challenges traditional notions of gender and sexuality, offering a critique of societal norms that restrict human experience. “As its starting point, queer theory takes that ‘normal’ is a constructed, imagined, changing and limiting classification,” explains Craig. “This has huge implications for studies of gender and sexuality. What becomes possible if we challenge the assumption that heterosexuality, patriarchy and cisgender identities are the norm or the ideal? What happens if we imagine there are as many genders and sexualities in the world as there are people?”
At its core, LGBTQ2+ studies encourages a reimagining of what is possible when we move away from restrictive norms and embrace a diversity of experiences. It draws from a variety of disciplines, including feminist theory, history, sociology and cultural studies, to examine how race, class, (dis)ability and other factors intersect with gender and sexuality to shape people’s lives. As such, the field promotes a vision of a more inclusive and just world, recognising that the boundaries of identity are socially constructed and can be reshaped to allow for greater freedom.
LGBTQ2+ studies offers opportunities to explore the ways in which music, art and literature have influenced and been shaped by queer movements. “For example, researching LGBTQ2+ dance histories allows us to recognise joyful moments of collective bliss and social transformation that have ramifications long after people leave the dance floor,” says Craig. “Accessing feelings of shared joy reformulate the world and remind us that the world in which we live can be better, more just and more attuned to collective experiences of bliss.”
Pathway from school to LGBTQ2+ studies
It is essential to build a foundation in subjects that encourage critical thinking and an understanding of social systems. At school, study subjects such as history, sociology and literature.
At university, a degree in gender studies, cultural studies, sociology or political science will allow you to explore the intersections of identity, culture and power.
“LGBTQ2+ studies is profoundly interdisciplinary,” says Craig. “What binds LGBTQ2+ scholars together is a commitment to understanding alternative ways of experiencing sexuality and gender and the potential for moving away from norms and accepted conventions.”
Volunteering with LGBTQ2+ advocacy groups will provide valuable practical experience. Look for opportunities to get involved with LGBTQ2+ organisations to engage with LGBTQ2+ history and activism. One such organisation is The ArQuives, Canada’s largest LGBTQ2+ archive: www.arquives.ca/volunteer
Explore careers in LGBTQ2+ studies
LGBTQ2+ studies will open doors to diverse career pathways in academia, activism, the arts and social services. Many LGBTQ2+ scholars pursue careers in academia, where they research and teach about LGBTQ2+ history and political movements. Others work in community organisations, where they advocate for LGBTQ2+ rights and engage in policy work.
“There are remarkable opportunities to learn about LGBTQ2+ histories,” says Craig. “I think it’s important for any of us interested in imagining and building a more just world to learn about the ways political collectives of the past and present have shaped the world we live in today.”
“The best way to prepare for studying or working in fields related to LGBTQ2+ studies and queer political thought is to remain open to unconventional ideas, new ways of reading the world, and the possibility of coalition across difference,” explains Craig.
Meet Craig
Most of my time as a teenager revolved around music. I was a drummer in rock and pop music bands and a percussionist in wind bands and orchestras. Looking back on it now, I can see that these experiences of making music with others has informed my work as a scholar of LGBTQ2+ music histories. It has also helped me see the profound intimacy and closeness that can develop when we participate in music (through performing, listening and dancing) with others.
Being a percussionist requires you to embrace a supporting position – drummers provide a steady foundation on which others can build, experiment and shine. We play a supportive role that, when done well, binds the music-making collective together. This approach to music has animated my thinking about LGBTQ2+ scholarship – we do our best work when we collaborate with others to create something we couldn’t do on our own.
I came to LGBTQ2+ studies through music. During my undergraduate degree in music performance, I was fortunate to take a course with Dr Jacqueline Warwick, a path-breaking musicologist who focuses on gender, sexuality, race, class and age in popular music performance. She showed me that studying queer popular music performance and participation was possible and important.
For a long time, I was scared of being gay. I thought that others would see this as a flaw or a problem. But I’ve come to realise that being gay is the best thing to ever happen to me – it helped me see that the conventional, expected and idealised life trajectories that are encouraged are just one of many possible ways to live life. It has opened up possibilities for different, weird and beautiful ways of being in this world and connecting with others.
Recognising the beauty of being different from the norm informed my research priorities. I’m curious about individuals and communities that don’t fit into the social moments in which they exist, ‘weirdos’ who imagine different ways of living life, and people who needed to be creative and resolute in their commitment to envisioning and working for a more just world.
In my free time, I go dancing whenever I can. Otherwise, I spend time with my dog, Keji, and make mediocre pottery!
Craig’s top tip
Recognise that nearly everything about the world in which we live is socially constructed and can, therefore, be different.
Do you have a question for Craig?
Write it in the comments box below and Craig will get back to you. (Remember, researchers are very busy people, so you may have to wait a few days.)
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Discover the history of LGBTQ2+ rights in the USA, and learn how social science research contributed to the fight for marriage equality:
Great article Craig and so true ! Dance does bring joy and a sense of belonging to all participants!!