On the 9th Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me ..

9 LADIES DANCING

In the traditional sequence of gifts from the medieval period the dancing ladies arrived on the 11^th day of Christmas, and that was the version I was taught at school. However, the modern version moves the ladies to the 9^th day today, so here they are.

At first I couldn’t think of many lesbian or female bisexual dancers, certainly not as many at 9. So it was back to the books and read up on an area of the performing arts I have to admit I know little about.

I hope that the dancers I’ve chosen offer an insight into the important contribution female choreographers and dancers have made, and continue to make.

Quite often the earliest female dancers courted controversy, for no other reason than by dancing in skimpy costumes when just the sight of a lady’s ankle was risqué. Many contemporary female dancers have continued to push boundaries, including some of those listed here.

1) MAUD ALLEN (1873-1956)

Maud became famous, even notorious, for her “Vision of Salome”, a dance version of the work by Oscar Wilde.

2) ISADORA DUNCAN (1878-1927)

Isadora’s barefoot dancing in long flowing tunics was a deliberate attempt to move away from the more rigid style and look of traditional ballet.

3) ANITA BERBER (1899-1928)

Anita’s use of eroticism, exotic costume and sometimes macabre imagery in her dances is often regarded as the pre-cursor of modern performance art.

4) ANNE BLUMENTHAL

Founder and artistic director of ABD Productions in 1984. Basing her works on feminist concepts and social issues, Anne’s company has won many awards.

5) KRISSY KEEFER (b.1953)

Co-founder in 1984 and artistic director of San Francisco’s Dance Brigade. Her most successful work has been “The Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie”.

6) JENNIFER MONSON

Founder and artistic director of iLAND, a research organisation investigating the power of dance. Professor of dance at the University of Illinois.

7) JILL TOGAWA

Founded the Purple Moon Dance Project in San Francisco in 1992 to promote lesbian and ethnic female dance.

8) ANNE GADWA NICODEMUS (b.1980)

Anne described herself as “ a choreographer/art administrator turned urban planner”.

9) SASHA MALLORY

Contestant on the US tv series “So You Think You Can Dance?”. She was criticised by some for NOT coming out on the show.

On the 8th Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me …

8 DOCTORS IMMUNIZING

Believe it or not, but milkmaids were instrumental in bringing about the eradication of smallpox. Dr. Edward Jenner had noticed that milkmaids who contracted the milder cowpox never got smallpox. From this Jenner began vaccination (from the Latin word for cow) to fight smallpox.

Taking this example as my basis for the 8^th Gay Day of Christmas I bring you 8 lgbt scientists and doctors who have worked in disease research. There are many others around the world. I won’t include lgbt researchers into HIV and AIDS because I intend to cover all aspects of AIDS research next December.

1          P. ROBERT BEATTY

Professor of Immunology and lecturer at the University of California Berkeley. He helped to develop a biochip used to identify specific diseases. For 15 years he focussed his research on T-cell immunology.

2          MARGERY L. COOK, PhD (1925-2001)

Dr. Cook was one of the leading researchers into the herpes virus. She studied and worked at the University of California Los Angeles until her retirement in 1993.

3          ROCHELLE (SHELLEY) DIAMOND, BA

Research biologist at the California Institute of Technology specialising in developmental immunology and flow cytometry. She is chair of NOGLSTP, the National Organisation of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals.

4          JAMES NOWICK, PhD

Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Irvine. His work has included developing new drug designs for neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

5.         LOUISE PEARCE (1885-1959)

Pathologist at the Rockerfeller Institute who helped develop a treatment for sleeping sickness. She also developed tryparsanide, the standard drug to treat syphilis before penicillin was discovered.

6.         DEVIN SOK

Graduate student at the Scripps Research Institute on California working on research into prostate cancer. In 2012 he co-authored a paper on the inhibition of HIV-1 subtype C. Co-founder of QuEST, Queer Engineers and Technical Professionals.

7          RICK TAN, MD

Los Angeles doctor who has researched into allergies, asthma and immunology. He is president of one of the USA’s oldest organisations for lgbt physicians, and president of LA’s Society of Allergy, Asthmas and Clinical Immunology.

8          LADY MARY WORTLEY-MONTAGU (1689-1762)

While living in Turkey Lady Mary saw the use of inoculation against smallpox. She brought the practice back to England, where it received a mixed response, though it eventually became common before Jenner developed vaccination.

On the 7th Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me …

7  GRACEFUL SWANS

With 2012 being the 25^th anniversary of Matthew Bourne’s “Adventures in Motion Pictures” dance company it seems natural that this Christmas I celebrate by taking inspiration for his most famous innovation into classical ballets – the all-male “Swan Lake”.

Here are 7 gay male dancers who glided swan-like across the world’s stages with grace and elegance, including some who have passed away recently. I’ll start with Matthew Bourne himself.

1) MATTHEW BOURNE (b.1960)

Bourne was artistic director of Adventures in Motion Pictures for fifteen years. At his helm ballet became more accessible to the general public, especially through his innovative use of male swans and other twists to traditional roles. Bourne has also choreographed many musical revivals in the West End.

2) SIR ROBERT HELPMANN (1909-1986)

Robert will always be remembered as the Child Catcher in the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, but he is also Australia’s most famous and prolific ballet dancers and choreographers, although he started his career as a burlesque dancer. After his peak years he became a successful actor on stage and screen as well as choreographer.

3) ALEXANDER GRANT (1925-2011)

A great character dancer from the golden years of the Royal Ballet. He worked closely with Sir Frederick Ashton, who created character parts specially for him, and brought new energy to “older roles” for male dancers in the 1960s. Grant also became leader of the National Ballet of Canada.

4) RUDOLF NUREYEV (1938-1993)

Perhaps the most famous male ballet dancer of the last 50 years. While Principal Dance with the Kirov Ballet he defected to the west, becoming a celebrity in the process. His partnership with Dame Margot Fonteyn has entered legend. He turned to acting, famously appearing nude in “Valentino” in 1982, and was one of the first big names to announce he had AIDS shortly before he died.

5) RICHARD CRAGUN (1944-2012)

An American ballet dancer who partnered ballerina Maria Haydée for thirty years. They became lovers for a while until Richard came out as gay, though they continued to dance together successfully for many years afterwards. In 2000 he moved to Rio de Janeiro with his Brazilian boyfriend to form a dance project in the Rio slums.

6) WAYNE SLEEP (b.1948)

Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet, and one of the first British male ballet dancers to move from dance to acting to celebrity. With Alexander Grant he danced in Sir Frederick Ashton’s film “The Tales of Beatrix Potter”. He starred in his own dance series on tv, and now seems to spend most of his time on reality and celebrity shows.

7) NIGEL CHARNOCK (1960-2012)

Co-founder of the contemporary dance company DV8. Nigel often courted controversy with his innovative dances and energetic performances, often by appearing naked. He pioneered the use of all-male dancers in sexually inspired plots. He choreographed pieces for many contemporary dance companies and performed solo.

On the 6th Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me ..

6 MOTHER GEESE LAUGHING

Goose was the staple diet of most Victorian families on Christmas Day. Goose has also another association with this time of year. The traditional pantomime season is well under way and one of the oldest and most popular panto is “Mother Goose”. It is also the only panto in which the dame character has the title role and, because of this, is generally regarded by actors who play dame, as the best dame role of all.

At first sight it seems that the panto dame is totally different from drag cabaret, but it’s surprising how many cabaret acts have tried their hand at panto. The list below contains performers from both cabaret and panto.

1) Douglas Byng (1893-1987)

Nottingham-born Byng was the biggest cabaret drag act between the two World Wars and into the 60s. His reputation for creating outlandish dame costumes has influenced all Dames to this day. Douglas’s first panto was in 1921 in “Aladdin” at the London Palladium. His first dame roles was as Eliza the Cook in “Dick Whittington” in 1924.

2) Jack Tripp (1922-2005)

The Crown Princess to Douglas Byng’s Queen of Dames. Tripp appeared in over 50 pantomimes, many of them as dame. He once said that Mother Goose was the “Hamlet of Pantomimes”, and it was as Mother Goose that he made his last appearance in 1996. Like Douglas Byng, a Brighton bus is named after him.

3) Danny La Rue (1927-2009)

Better known as a glamorous female impersonator and cabaret star than a panto dame. His first dame role was as an Ugly Sister in “Cinderella” in 1956, a role he played for the next 14 years. He first played Mother Goose in 1984, and repeated the performance for the next three years.

4) John Inman (1935-2007)

Best known  for his role as Mr Humphreys in the camp comedy series “Are You Being Served?”, John was one of many dames to prefer Mother Goose to all other dame roles. He played the role 15 times.

5) Christopher Biggins (b.1948)

Probably the UK’s most famous currently active pantomime dame. His first dame role was as Mother Goose in 1971 at the Civic Theatre in Darlington.

6) And finally – me.

As a girl my mother performed in wartime panto and revue and was a magician’s assistant with family links to the last days of the Music Hall. I’ve played dame several times on the amateur stage but not yet as Mother Goose. But then I don’t think I need to because I’m descended from her! Not the real one, of course. My mother’s grandmother was Sarah Elizabeth Foster Goose. She came from a farming family in the Lincolnshire fens. So she is my grandmother’s “Mother Goose”.

On the 5th Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me…

5 OLYMPIC GOLD RINGS

Obviously, five rings reminds us of the Olympic Games earlier this year, and gold reminds us of Olympic champions. I think it would be unfair to single out just 5 of this year’s lgbt champions, so I’ll list them all (as known so far) and use the Olympic rings to represent our Christmas gift of 5 gold rings.

Nicola Adams

GB : women’s 51kg boxing

Instantly entered the record books as the first champion in Olympic women’s boxing

Seimone Augustus

USA : Women’s basketball

Carl Hester

GB : Equestrian team dressage

Megan Rapinoe

USA : women’s football

Marilyn Agliotti,

Carlien Dirkse van den Heuvel,

Kim Lammers, and

Maartje Paumen

Netherlands : women’s hockey

And a special mention goes to:

Lee Pearson

GB : paralympic equestrian team dressage

This 10^th gold paralympic medal for Lee puts him at the top of the Olympic/Paralympic lgbt champions list.

On the 4th Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me …

FOUR GAY BLACKBIRDS

When I was growing up this verse always went “4 colley birds”. I couldn’t understand why people kept singing “4 calling birds”, and still don’t. Colley is a traditional English word meaning “black”, and a colley bird is another name for the common blackbird. My mother often used to refer to blackbirds as colley birds when she saw them in the garden.

Colley birds – blackbirds – were a delicacy at Christmas time and can also be found in the nursery rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence”.

There are other regional, dialect and slang words for the blackbird. So, on this 4^th Day of Christmas I bring to you 4 lgbt people whose names are different names for the blackbird, my 4 gay colley birds.

FRANK MERLO (1922-1963)

(Merlo – the name for blackbird in Galician and Esperanto)

Long-term partner of playwright Tennessee Williams. They met in 1947 and became a couple a year later with Merlo becoming his personal assistant. Merlo is recognised as the key stabilising factor in William’s troubled life. During their time together Williams had his greatest successes. Merlo was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and Williams cared for him until his death in 1963.

MERLE WOO (b.1941)

(Merle – blackbird in Old English and Old French)

American-born activist and lecturer of mixed Asian heritage. Merle is often an outspoken critic on the portrayal and perception of Asian women. She has also written poetry and prose on the subject. Merle was twice fired from her post as lecturer at the University of California Berkeley, and both times was reinstated after winning free speech lawsuits.

MERYL COHN (b.1962)

(Meryl – 17^th and 18^th century variant of “merle”)

“Agony aunt” and advice columnist writing as Ms Behaviour. Her column is syndicated to several US lgbt newspapers and magazines. In 1995 Meryl published “Ms Behavior’s Guide to Gay and Lesbian Etiquette”, and has written several plays and many articles.

DARYL COLLEY (1971-2001)

(Colley – traditional English name for the blackbird)

Australian drag queen by the name of Rosie. Diagnosed HIV+ he also believed he had a brain tumour. He asked his lover Raymond to help him commit suicide because he didn’t want to be remembered as a “dribbling mess”. It was ruled that Daryl died from a self-administered drug overdose before Raymond attempted to suffocate him.

On the 3rd Gay Day of Christmas ...

… my blogger gave to me …

THREE FRENCH LADIES

There’s no clear reason why the hens given on the 3^rd day of Christmas should be French. But, as the national bird of France is the cockerel, I can find no other reason than to present you with three French women.

1) COLETTE (1873-1954)

One of France’s most popular authors who had affairs with men and women, and who fictionalised her experiences in several books. Her husband encouraged her lesbianism for his own enjoyment, and Colette left him at the start of her lesbian affair with a French aristocrat. Her most famous novella “Gigi” was turned into an Oscar-winning musical film.

2) MARIA SCHNEIDER (1952-2011)

Actor whose most famous (and notorious) role was opposite Marlon Brando in “Last Tango in Paris” in 1972, an experience which led her to work for improvements in the treatment of female actors in the film industry. Maria continued to appear in films until 2008, and in 2010 became a Chevalier of the Ordre des Artes and des Lettres for services to the Arts (the French equivalent of Dame).

3) AMÉLIE MAURESMO (b.1979)

In 2004 Amélie became the first French tennis player to reach No. 1 ranking in the world without winning a Grand Slam title. She earned a reputation for losing finals matches due to nerves, but she proved to the world she was a great champion by winning the World Championships in 2005, and the Wimbledon and Australian Open titles in 2006. As a junior player she was also a Wimbledon and French Open champion in 1996. Amélie won a silver medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.