Addie Tsai: On the Politics of Gender and Race in Dance Culture
In this interview, author Addie Tsai discusses interrogating a historical and cultural trope in her new book, Straight White Men Can’t Dance.
Addie Tsai (she/they) is the author of Dear Twin (2019), included in American Library Association’s Rainbow List in 2021; Unwieldy Creatures (2022), a Shirley Jackson finalist for Best Novel; and Straight White Men Can’t Dance: American Masculinity in Film and Popular Culture (2025). She collaborated with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater on Victor Frankenstein and Camille Claudel, among others. They are the founding editor in chief for just femme + dandy. Addie is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Creative Writing at William & Mary. Her articles have been published in LO:TECH:POP:CULT: Screendance Remixed (2024), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Dance and Philosophy (2021), Slapstick: An Interdisciplinary Companion (2021), and The International Journal of Screendance. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
In this interview, Addie discusses interrogating a historical and cultural trope in her new book, Straight White Men Can’t Dance, her advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Addie Tsai
Book title: Straight White Men Can’t Dance: American Masculinity in Film & Popular Culture
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Release date: Hardback available; paperback September 17, 2026
Genre/category: Drama and Performance Studies
Previous titles: Dear Twin, Unwieldy Creatures
Elevator pitch: Straight White Men Can’t Dance: American Masculinity in Film & Popular Culture investigates a trope proliferating throughout popular American media over the last half-century: that straight white men can’t dance.
What prompted you to write this book?
I explored this research in my dissertation for a PhD in Dance. I was interested in exploring an idea in dance studies that would appeal to the general public, that was accessible. One day I was watching the comedian and host Stephen Colbert dance during his opening monologue for his late-night talk show, “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and I realized how ubiquitous the performance and attitude of white men dancing across American popular culture had become. It was from that moment that I decided to investigate the historical and cultural forces behind this accepted bias and trope.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I started exploring this idea in 2016, near the end of my coursework for my PhD. The book was first published in Fall 2025, so, a decade!
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I expected more of a hands-on and collaborative approach with copy editing, given that my first two books were creative works. Luckily, I’ve worked in editing in various ways for a long time, but I think if I hadn’t, I would have felt nervous about trusting my own editorial skill and style.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I’ve had a lot of encouragement and support from my community, but writing and finishing a scholarly book is a mostly solitary endeavor. It can feel isolating at times compared to a creative work, which I didn’t expect.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Ihope my readers consider how dance in American popular culture speaks volumes in relation to gender and race, and that it encourages all of us to take a deeper look at the political and social forces present when we are meant to be least attentive to them.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Take the book one chapter, one page, one paragraph at a time. As it is often said, the only way out is through.
