Straight(ening) Salsa? The heterosexual matrix, romance and disciplinary spaces

How do salsa dance spaces reproduce heteronormativity? Drawing on interview data with heterosexual and lesbian-gay identified salsa dancers from England and Switzerland, this article explores how heterosexuality is constructed and legitimised in salsa dance leisure spaces. Aligned with Judith Butler’s conceptualisation of the heterosexual matrix, it analyses how dance studio settings allow for the reproduction of heterosexuality as a central axiom of salsa. Understanding space as performative, the article further illustrates how salsa classes and competitions work as hierarchical disciplinary sites where bodies are trained and normalised. This is explored through a Foucauldian approach to surveillance and discipline to render visible the exclusive technologies of power that heteronormalise salsa dance spaces.