Why I Never Became a Dancer
| Artist | Tracey Emin |
|---|---|
| Location | Tate |
| Accession | T07314 |
Why I Never Became a Dancer by Tracey Emin (1995) is a single-screen projection with sound, shot on Super 8. Duration: 6 minutes, 40 seconds.[1] It was made in an edition of 10.[2] An edited transcript has been published.[3]
Plot summary
Why I Never Became a Dancer portrays the artist’s early adolescence in Margate, where she grew up. The film begins with the title written across a wall, and then features a montage of views which are significant to Emin’s past, including her school, the seaside and shops. The artist’s voice narrates her story, opening with “I never liked school / I was always late / In fact I hated it / So at thirteen I left.” The video’s final scenes show Emin’s involvement in a local disco-dancing competition, in an attempt to escape to London to take part in the British Disco Dance Championship 1978. The last two minutes of the film consist of Emin dancing exuberantly around a studio.[4]
Sexual experimentation and public humiliation
In the film, Emin describes leaving school at age 13 and spending her time on Margate’s Golden Mile, dreaming and having sex. Sex “was something you could just do and it was for free”. She was “13, 14” and having sex with men of “19, 20, 25, 26”. In the film, the narration states: “It could be good, really something. I remember the first time someone asked me to grab their balls, I remember the power it gave me. But it wasn’t always like that; sometimes they’d just cum, and then they’d leave me there, wherever I was, half naked.”[4]
In the final scenes, the artist performs at a local dance competition and people begin to clap. A gang of men, “most of whom [the artist] had sex with at one time or another”[4] began to chant “slag, slag, slag”.[4]
In an interview with Melvyn Bragg, Emin commented on the incident: “I don’t see why I was such a slag. All I did was sleep with a few people. It’s not a crime, I didn’t kill anyone.”[5]
References
- ↑ The Art of Tracey Emin. London: Thames and Hudson. 2002. p. 219. ISBN 0-500-28385-0.
- ↑ "'Why I Never Became a Dancer', Tracey Emin: Summary | | Tate". www.tate.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ↑ Tracey Emin. London: Tate Publishing. 2006. pp. 78–79. ISBN 1-85437-542-3.
- 1 2 3 4 Tracey Emin: Why I Never Became a Dancer, 1995, retrieved 2015-11-18
- ↑ Tracey Emin on The South Bank Show, retrieved 2016-03-05