In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

194 ARRAYS
pletely their posterior, private parts, and navel with opaque fabrics, so
that during the dance movements these body parts are not revealed.
Furthermore, the breasts must be covered at least to the extent that the
nipples cannot be seen during dance movements" (Jelavich, 163; Klooss
and Reuter, 47). The constant threat of police intervention aimed at
enforcing such rules adds to the genre-specific fascination, which is
further intensified by openly pornographic program brochures (Jelavich,
179; Klooss and Reuter, 51) and by the revues' racy titles: "Houses of
Love," "On and Off," "Berlin Unbuttoned." From a strictly quantitative
point of view, however, sex is only a minor ingredient of such acts. Their
internal rhythm is set by kicklines consisting of ten or more female bodies
that dance with precise synchronization to the sound of fast-paced music.
Kicklines are often interpreted by spectators and critics as the epitome
of the deindividualizing and desubjectivizing mid-level jobs that
have recently become open to women; and like those jobs, they have a
desexualizing effect (Jelavich, 175-176). [see Assembly Lines, Employees,
Male vs. Female, Male = Female (Gender Trouble)] The sex appeal
of the dancing girls is as reduced as that of the diligent secretaries. On
the one hand, kicklines thus contrast sharply with the nudity of "living
pictures," but on the other they reveal a further-intrinsic-dichotomy
between the drill of their coordinated movements, as an element of
sobriety, and the lavish ornamentation that surrounds their choreography.
Whether connected as "living curtains" (Klooss and Reuter, 60;
Schafer, 43) [see Sobriety vs. Exuberance] or arranged in tableaux of
historical scenes, the ornamentalized bodies participate in the deindividualizing
dynamic of the kicklines. But ornamentalization can also
produce a contrast between the multiple anonymous bodies of the
"girls" in the chorus and the central bodies of revue stars whose importance
is marked by flamboyant costumes. The feather boa which has
become the trademark of the Moulin Rouge star Mistinguett can metamorphose
into gigantic butterfly wings (Schafer, 52; Annees-memoire,
86). Like a shining pearl [see Gomina], Josephine Baker lies in an enormous
artificial shell which descends slowly from the ceiling to the stage;
when it opens, its mirrored inner surfaces display multiple reflections of
her brown body (Schafer, 49).
Once Josephine Baker begins to dance, she incarnates yet another
aspect of the revue's fascination-namely, a projection of authenticity
onto African and African-American forms of culture: "She is the real