Define Gender: Unboxing
Dancers break down boundaries in a poetic exploration of identity
With a background in fine art photography, director Kate Cox has made a name for herself with painterly short films focusing on the tactility of human connection. For the latest episode of Define Gender, Cox borrows the considered mise en scène of a 1968 image by photographer Will McBride for her atmospheric exploration of gender and selfhood. Here, she talks about the project:
“Gender isn't as black and white as I grew up believing. While some people are fluid and others decisive in theiridentification, both are of equal value. The social labels of the male and the female feel irrelevant and restrictive today. I wanted to express this through dance because, energetically, it can call upon the masculine and feminine but also exist outside those stereotypes.
“Everyone's relationship to their gender is personal and unique”
“With the box structure of the set—and the dancer's liberation from it—I wanted to show that we do not have to exist within the binary limitations society inflicts on us. This film presents a space where gender can be more fluid than fixed definitions allow.”
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