IN APRIL 1962, Rudolf Nureyev was convicted under Soviet article N43 of treason against the state. Traitor number 50,888 was not present to defend himself against the charges, which had resulted from his dramatic defection to the West at Le Bourget airport, Paris, the year before.

THE DANCE FESTIVAL known as Jacob’s Pillow began as the summer home of Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers in 1933. With that as its lineage, Shawn’s enterprise would seem to be entitled to a gay back-story. Surprisingly, that story has yet to be fully told, and many of the Pillow’s 70,000 annual visitors to Becket, Massachusetts, are probably unaware of this aspect of Pillow history.

CHOREOGRAPHERS in the U.S. have repeatedly drawn men and metaphors from the world of sports to give their work a sense of authenticity on the concert dance stage. What’s more, the presence of male athletes and athleticism has worked to counter long-held anxieties about the supposed effeminacy of male dancers. To illustrate what I think is a heretofore unexamined use of male athletes in dance, I wish to discuss four dances …

WHEN I TELL those outside the dance world about my interest in same-sex ballroom, their first question is always the same: “but who leads?” This query never ceases to amaze me-how and why has ballroom become primarily about leading and following, about dominance and submission?