Gender dialogs

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All over the world, social norms of how the sexes treat each other are represented in music. They are questioned and negotiated, manifested, playfully converted, angrily accused or imaginatively conjured up. It is not uncommon for gender relations to be integrated into rituals and cultic practices through, with and in music and thus preserved for centuries, even in places where other forms of coexistence have long since developed in everyday life. At the same time, music can develop an enormous emancipatory power in asymmetrical power relations or provide places of retreat and thus have a unifying and binding effect. The series of events explores this topic using specific examples and looking at several continents and societies. It will also discuss migration, transculturalism and superdiversity. The emphasis will be on what unites us, the dialog, the universitas in the diversitas.

Concept and planning: Prof. Karin Holzwarth / Dr. Silke Wenzel
The lecture series will be continued in the summer semester.

On this evening of the lecture series, we will look at the topic of gender dialogues in dance from three very different and yet wonderfully complementary perspectives:
Singer Timo Valtonen turns the spotlight on his country of origin: Finns were the first women in Europe to be granted universal suffrage (1906) and even today Finland is still considered a pioneer of emancipation. Finnish tango developed into an independent form in the 1930s, but was banned during the war years. After the war, it soon became hegemonic culture. It is described as a cheek-to-cheek dance and a kind of sacred rite (versus the battle of the sexes in Argentinian tango), although here too the man (usually) leads.
Vineetha Wijayaratnam presents the research topic of her master's thesis: "The Tranformation of Black Female Hip Hop - From the Margins to Mainstream Popularity". The thesis deals with the intersectionality of music, empowerment, history and social structures: In her contribution, Wijayaratnam looks at how physicality, self-presentation and agency are negotiated in hip-hop culture, especially by Black female rappers, from an intersectional feminist perspective. She is interested in how artistic strategies oscillate between empowerment, commercialization and regimes of the gaze and what resonances this has for music and its gender discourses. In a joint dialog, she would like to explore how music, voice and aesthetics can open up spaces for self-determination, contradiction and encounters in solidarity.
Catharina Lühr shares her wealth of experience from decades of choreographic work on major stages in German-speaking and international countries and her practical experience with dance and gender aspects, especially in the field of opera. The focus is on the question of drawing and expanding physical boundaries: How can performers clarify their boundaries? When does closeness on stage become too much? She combines these aspects with a critical analysis of hierarchical structures in the world of opera. The insights she has gained over the years serve as the basis for her exploration of the overarching theme of "Bodies and Borders".

The spoken word will be complemented by musical contributions that bring the topic to life, as is traditional for the HfMT's lecture series on gender equality.

Eintritt frei