Ruin and Romance: Heterosexual Discourses on Irish Popular Dance, 1920–1960

This article examines the ways in which dance embodies and expresses sexual discourses through an exploration of popular recreational dance in Ireland from 1920 to 1960 with particular emphasis on women. The author looks at the antipathy to ‘modern’ dancing by the State, Church and cultural groups during the 1920s and 1930s. This era was distinguished by a sexual discourse of ruin and sin and was part of the project of creating an ideal nation. It is argued that this period was followed by a more positive, though not unproblematic, discourse of romance from the 1940s onwards, which was associated with increasing consumption and urbanisation. In the concluding section differences and similarities between the two eras are suggested and brief comparison is made with sexual discourses of dance in the 1980s and 1990s.