Sexing the Dance at Sleaze Ball 1994

Each year since 1982, Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG), the flagship organization of the Sydney lesbian and gay community, has produced two dance parties-the Mardi Gras Party and Sleaze Ball-which in 1994 attracted I8,ooo and 16,400 partygoers respectively. This essay takes Dunne's camp suggestion seriously. In framing the dance party as performance event, it mobilizes the analytical resources of performance studies against a complex cultural phenomenon. Guiding the analysis offered here is a question: How was Sleaze Ball 1994 able to serve as the locus of a debate articulating the political relations between lesbians/gays and straights in terms of community, sexuality, discrimination, and cultural respect?'