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AT the end of the 19th century, the female dancer, the ballerina reigned supreme, but in the final decade of the 20th century, testosterone triumphs. Male swans have usurped the feathered maidens of Swan Lake (in Matthew Bourne's hugely successful modern dance version of Tchaikovsky's 1895 classic), while Eurocrash has replaced post-modernism as the dance style of choice for an entire generation of aggressive young performers.
In more mainstream entertainment, percussive dance/rhythm shows like Stomp, Tap Dogs and Gumboots play to capacity crowds on the international touring circuit, Michael Flatley has anointed himself Lord of the Dance, and Joaqu'n Corts flaunts his flamenco fusion and baby-oiled torso in arena-sized spectaculars while stalking the international fashion scene with (or without) Naomi Campbell on his arm.
Machismo is without doubt the dominant single trend in dance over the past 10 years. So what happened to George Balanchine's famous edict, 'Dance is woman'?
"There is a big push to produce sexy work," DV8 Physical Theatre founder and director, Lloyd Newson, told me recently. "Dance sells itself so much on sex and over the past decade or so, marketing and advertising images have used the male body to sell things. The dance and entertainment world is just reflecting that."
Well, if dance is the Haagen-Dazs of the Nineties, Newson is one of the choreographers who helped make it so. DV8 was one of the first groups in Britain to plant the seeds of this macho sexual revolution in dance during the late Eighties and early Nineties with works like My Body, Your Body and the hugely influential Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men. In the wake of DV8, a whole tribe of body-slamming, foot-stomping dance groups emerged. Suddenly, where pointed shoes and ballet slippers (if anything at all) covered dancers' feet, Doc Martens and little black Reeboks became de rigueur, with kneepads and elbow protectors the most fashionable accessories. Inevitably, some of these Eurocrash groups were better than others. La La La Human Steps from Montreal and Wim Vandekeybus's Brussels-based Ultima Vez were, and still are, the cream of the crop, but even the wannabes found an enthusiastic audience for dance whose practitioners displayed the aggressive edge, strutting attitude and sexual awareness...