Her Disruptions: The Performances of Jill Johnston

FAIN: FEL-281941-22

Clare Holloway Croft
Regents of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1015)

Completion of a biography of American dance critic and feminist Jill Johnston (1929-2010).

An experimental cultural biography of dance critic and feminist activist Jill Johnston.

Associated Products

Her Disruptions: Dancing with Jill Johnston (Book)
Title: Her Disruptions: Dancing with Jill Johnston
Author: Clare Croft
Abstract: Her Disruptions: Dancing with Jill Johnston chronicles the life, writing, and activism of dance critic and lesbian feminist activist, Jill Johnston. The book argues that life in dance shaped Johnston’s activism and that, by tracking this relationship, it is clear that dancing and writing are not opposites, but rather practices both borne of embodied action. The book traces this collision of medium through the particular lens of a lesbian navigating both radical feminism and gay liberation, producing a lesbian strategy of being termed “confirmation without recognition.” The book primarily focuses on the years 1960-1980 when Johnston wrote regularly for alternative weekly, The Village Voice, covering New York dance, visual art, and women’s and gay activist movements. Artists, writers, and theorists discussed in the book include Alvin Ailey, the Judson Dance Theatre, Susan Sontag, Audre Lorde, Antonin Artaud, Charlotte Moorman, Guillaume Apollinaire, Kate Millett, Norman Mailer, Gertrude Stein, Yvonne Rainer, and Agnes Martin.
Year: 2024
Publisher: Duke University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: n/a
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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