Dancing salsa in post-thinking Europe: Gender and sexuality discourses among salsa dancers in Switzerland and England

In a discursive context where Europe is associated with modernity and ‘progress’,
salsa dancing is often claimed to offer ‘difference’ in terms of the gender roles it
propagates. The multi-million salsa industry sells the dance practice as ‘sexy’, ‘hot’
and as the epitome of heterosexuality. This thesis explores gender and sexuality
discourses among salsa dancers in Switzerland and England. Drawing on
unstructured in-depth interviews with heterosexual and lesbian/gay salsa dancers,
it traces culturalist understandings of salsa genders that defer
heteronormativity and ‘strict’ gender roles to ‘Latin American culture’. Based on
queer-feminist, postcolonial and race critical theory, this thesis offers an analysis of
how gendered and sexualised formations come into being on the salsa scene. It will
do so by deconstructing Latin American gender stereotypes, narratives of passion
and heterosexual romance as well as heteronormalising processes that inform the
salsa dance studio. Overall, it will argue that claims to gender and sexuality on the
salsa scene are racialised in the way that they reflect broader discourses of race in
contemporary Europe. This thesis presents the first analysis of salsa dance practices
in Europe that is led by postcolonial and queer-feminist theory. Beyond an analysis
of salsa from this perspective, it aims to contribute to the study of
postcolonial racisms in Switzerland and England. Additionally, it makes a case for
the study of Latinidad in Europe and the gendered and sexualised stereotypes
associated with it.