Performance and Performativity

How might hula hooping be performative? In ‘Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory’, Judith Butler describes performativity to be the mundane, stylised behaviour enacted by individuals subconsciously every day. She understands behaviour to be “historically constitutive” in that the actions that one takes often come from a path of actions that have been repeated throughout history.

Byrne (2000) uses Butler’s work to examine how racialised bodies work in a similar way to gender to bodies in that ethnicity can be performed. As a basic example, I might perform my ethnicity by drinking tea to subscribe to a sense of British identity and indicate to others that I am British.

How, then, might the contemporary fitness and art form of hula hooping be understood as performative? Although it is a literal performance there are many codes in the ways that performers and non-performers carry themselves when they pick up a hoop. Without even taking to the stage, a hula hooper enacts certain behaviours and traits as they move using hoop dance as a form of expression. Experiences that have influenced the life of the person whose hula hooping can shape their style as a hoop dancer and this can be something that is taken to the stage during a literal performance.

The hula hoop brings with them a set of preconceived values to their practice that often have been acted out long before them. A student of contemporary dance or ballet might move with the hoop in ways that they’ve learned from this exterior practice: they might extend through the fingertips or point their toes as they spin hoop.

Having a background in gymnastics or circus practice could mean that the hula Hooper is able to spin hoop in conjunction with flexing their body in preconditioned ways and achieve impressive positions, such as the splits or a back bend, and sustaining a hoop trick.

A person who has practised yoga might find themselves in the flow of hoop dance but moving according to their knowledge that they have cultivated on the mat. They might execute a hula hoop trick synchronising with the breath, or lunging in a way reminiscent of warrior one, both practices and poses performed by many people in the heritage of yoga long before them.

Somebody who might have had training in martial arts might pick up the hoop in a completely different way. They might see the hula hoop as a prop in the same way that they see ‘bo’ or nunchucks in their martial arts class: like a weapon. Flow arts has long been compared to martial arts in ways that see the prop that creates the flow (in this case the hoop) as an extension of the body enabling the protection of the self.

In this way, cultural practices of the individual inform their experience of hoop dance as the person brings into their practice kinds of movement that are already familiar and sometimes from long cultural histories.

Sources:
Butler, J. (1988) 'Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory', in Theatre Journal, Vol. 40, No.4, pp. 519 - 531.
Byrne, B. (2000) 'Troubling race. Using Judith Butler's work to think about racialised bodies and selves', in Paper for Queering Development, IDS Seminar Series.