ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at an array of pas de deux between couples drawn from Shakespeare’s comedies to analyze the gendered implications of the physical relationships created between the characters. These ten dance adaptations show how interrogations of gender and power can be manifested through choreography and the agency of the dancing body. The choreographers challenge and even undo the binary of the active male and passive female, revealing through movement that it is impossible to permanently fix these gendered characteristics on either body. This is particularly true in dance adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, which tend to emphasize equality and female agency in their portrayals of antagonistic couples. The chapter also explores the ways in which choreographers create opportunities for male/female pas de deux that expand beyond the confines of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, as well as the ways in which same-sex duets in an adaptation of Twelfth Night reframe desire on the dance stage.
