A special edition of The Bookish Type's Queer History Club, in collaboration with Northern Ballet and DeNada Dance Theatre!

How is doing a history of dance like doing a history of queerness? Choreographer Carlos Pons Guerra explores this question in his accessible and dynamic lecture-workshop. Talking medieval dances of death, witches’ sabbaths, naughty Puritans and Romantic drag king ballerinas (amongst other colourful jigs from the past), Carlos will trace the intimate relationship between dance and our historical understanding of gender and sexuality. Drawing on queer literary theory, dance history and video examples of his own practice, he reveals how doing a history of dance is also inevitably—and fabulously— doing a history of queerness.

After the lecture, Carlos will lead an accessible movement workshop, open to all regardless of previous experience. It will be a fun, safe session in which Carlos will guide us through physical explorations of some of aspects of his lecture, such as gender performativity and non-verbal communication as queer eloquence. The workshop will be set to a delectable playlist of Latin camp!