Abstract
Accompanying Julia A. Ericksen’s feature on dance, Jonathan S. Marion provides photos and commentary to enchance our understanding of the body work of ballroom.
As ballroom competitors train and practice, they hone both their skills and the instruments of their craft: their bodies. Competitors’ bodily regimens typically include other types of dance and movement training—ranging from ballet to hip-hop, yoga, Pilates, and gyrotronics. General aerobic conditioning and diet are also essentials of their training.
Such bodily conditioning is necessary for the physical demands of ballroom competition. But ballroom is not judged through its physical execution. Judges do not actually dance with the competitors to assess their aptitudes. Rather, competitors are judged on the appearance of their performances.
The food and fashion, the practice and performance are all about looking a certain way on the dance floor. Aesthetic laborers of the first order, ballroom competitors are not only trying to dance better, but to look better dancing—according to appearances that involve competitors’ costuming and grooming, and in ways that typically racialize and sexualize the performing body.