Jorge Dunn | Bolero / 1982

call to sex

by Douglas Messerli

 

Jorge Dunn (performer) Bolero / 1982

 

I have never been a fan of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero, and apparently he wasn’t either, responding when a woman, after hearing it, told him he was mad, that she was absolutely right. It is and endlessly repetitive piece of about 15 minutes if you follow the rhythms he prescribed, which the great conductor Toscanini refused to play (his version was 12 minutes), causing a break between the composer and conductor.

     But when I saw Argentine dancer Jorge Dunn’s sensual performance I realized truly how  homoerotic this piece was. Dancing bare-chested Dunn uses his entire body to lure the viewer in, even, at times, gesturing with what appear be kisses thrown at the observers. Dunn’s body thrusts forward and backward as if in an orgasm of sex. Meanwhile a group of men sit behind him, a couple joining him as he performs on a raised red circular structure; and then, gradually, others follow as the rhythms of the piece continue and obviously their attraction to this sexual object of desire grows. Slowly more and more of the seated men join in on the sexual orgy, until finally by dance’s end all of the have joined him.

     One might describe this as the male version of Salome’s dance of the seven veils, without any veils, and with an invitation for the observers to join in.

     This work is clearly and almost entirely a homoerotic invitation into the frenzy of dance, a wild call to his male friends to venture out of their voyeurism and join him in his sexual balletic maneuvers. It is the most sexual ballet, perhaps, ever created. It is a gesture for others not only to take notice of his body, but to join in the sexual frenzy of the 15-minute dance.

     I truly can’t imagine what Dunn’s performance is but an expression of gay sexuality, calling forth the lust of all the men watching him perform.

     Dunn danced with the Maurice Béjart's Ballet of the 20th Century, appearing in at least 4 films, one directed by his filmmaker nephew, Aliocha Itovich. He died of AIDS in 1992 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

 

Los Angeles, April 26, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema (April 2025).