Choreography, virility and the nation: the case of Vassos Kanellos

Abstract

Drawing from published and unpublished texts, iconographic material and press sources, this article discusses the work of Vassos Kanellos, a Greek dance artist active since the early 20th century. Examining how Kanellos’ dance staged a hegemonic masculinity and interweaved it with equally hegemonic representations of "Greekness", the article complements scholarship on Greek modern dance’s embodiment of gendered and national narratives. By contextualising his practice in local and transnational frameworks, notably studying the role of his U.S.-American collaborator and spouse Tanagra Kanellos, it also contributes to an understanding of the inscription of Greek (dance) modernity within Western (dance) modernity, in which it is severely under-represented.