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DANCEABILITY: THE COMMITMENT TO MAKE DANCE ACCESSIBLE
By Alito Alessi and Sara Zolbrod
I believe if you can breathe, you can
dance. I have had the privilege of dancing with people who can not do much
"more" than breathe and move their eyes, or their left pinky finger, for
example, as well as trained professional dancers. Moving with such a diversity
of people has taught me how universally and deeply the urge runs to dance – for
people to feel, see, or even just imagine themselves expressing and creating
new physical relationships. Many people I have met have either been convinced
their whole lives that "since I have a disability, I can not dance, let alone
seriously study dance and perform" or "I like dancing but I would not enjoy
dancing with people with disabilities." I see both misconceptions melt again
and again with each new workshop.
I started teaching the DanceAbility method
at ImPulsTanz about ten years ago. Before that, I taught Contact Improvisation
and bodywork. Often I teach all three disciplines at the festival. I really
respect the team at ImPulsTanz for recognizing the contributions of
mixed-abilities work to contemporary dance.
Before I began working with people with
disabilities in the late 1980's, I was mainly focused on Contact Improvisation.
The work with diverse bodies and different mental understandings taught me more
and more about ensemble improvising. I learned that all anybody needs in order
to dance is to be in a space where people are supportive, are listening to each
other, and are respecting each other's limits and abilities. People without
disabilities often came thinking they were going to "help disabled people
dance," thinking they would be in a supporting role. Instead they realized
there was mutual support between them and all their dance partners, that every
single person had something unique to offer which broadened possibilities for
dancing, and that each person contributed equally to the creative process.
Why do so many able-bodied dancers and I
find it easy to open up and explore new movement possibilities in groups that
include people with disabilities? I think the more ways of moving and thinking
that we are exposed to, the more we can step out of our personal, familiar ways
of doing things, and the more freedom we give ourselves to move in new ways.
Also, people with disabilities may often face many obstacles and issues – physical, emotional, financial, access to transportation and buildings, lack of
opportunities to dance, scarcity of representation and role models in
mainstream culture, isolation, etc. – before they can even make it to a dance
class. People who are liberating themselves from oppression are making a strong
statement of empowerment that is infectious to everybody else in their
presence.
When I first started to work with people
with diverse abilities, a flood of new experiences washed away assumptions I
had about dance. Mixed abilities work taught me (and continues to teach me) to
listen differently and move my body differently, helping me to dissolve old
habits and patterns. As I found new shapes and forms, I opened to different
feelings, and I began to respect and appreciate my body and others' bodies
more, and I began to see beauty in more forms. As my movement range opened up
inspired by the diversity of possibilities, my world-view began to change. When
people change any of their ingrained habits, other possibilities open, be they
psychological, emotional, spiritual, or perceptual. As a choreographer, this
work presented me with new challenges, which forced me to discover new ways to
express myself: "I can not choreograph a jump into this piece because this
person can not jump, so how can I convey the same feeling?" Or, "I have to
adjust my sense of timing in order to fit the range of possibilities in this
group." I used to dance with able-bodied people all the time. In retrospect,
this actually limited my growth as a dancer because I was only exposed to
certain ways of moving that didn't include the broader spectrum of human
movement potential. The ease and comfort with which I learn in mixed groups is
amazing. I become less afraid of change; I learn more about improvisation here
than anywhere else.
Over the years, the search to find
solutions to ensure against isolation has turned DanceAbility into a
comprehensive structure for learning how to improvise. Though many people teach
movement improvisation, dancers often say they feel lost when improvising, and
not connected to their fellow improvisers. Most DanceAbility exercises are
improvisation scores that lead to beautiful duet, small group, or large
ensemble work. Studying the DanceAbility method gives dancers a clear
understanding of their own movement potential and their impact on others. It is
a deep study of sensation, relation,timing and design. DanceAbility trains dancers
to be able to see and sense how their own movements can complement or
intentionally contrast with what is happening around them. Improvisation is an
important foundation for much contemporary choreography. Many DanceAbility
exercises strengthen choreography skills and provide simple, effective tools
for generating new choreography.
Focusing on differences and limitations
more than similarities and potentials builds barriers and contributes to
oppression, both in dance and other arenas. My work is not for people with
disabilities. It is for all people, based on the commitment to make dance
accessible to everyone without isolating anyone. The goal of the DanceAbility
method is to find the common ground in a group, and build relationships and
community through dancing. As one Swiss participant of a workshop said, "We
people with handicaps are not used to people loving our bodies. Normally what
you learn as handicapped people is that people are looking at what is missing,
what doesn't work, and nobody is looking at what is here and what we can do.
This work really supports a different view: I learned to look for what is here
and work with that. You give people back love for their bodies, and do that by
moving, by playing and developing more possibilities to move." I do not see
people with disabilities as "special," with "limits" they need to try to
"overcome;" I just appreciate all people's unique movements. All people have
something to contribute to their communities, and communities are healthiest
when they are able to access the resources of all their members. All bodies
have both ability and disability but neither defines people's potential for
relating and building a sense of self-worth and community through dance.
Two people who I have been inspired by meeting
in Vienna are Vera and Maria. I met Vera Rebl about six years ago when I was
relaxing in a beer garden with some fellow dancers. This woman in a wheelchair
was sitting at the same table, so I introduced myself and told her about the
DanceAbility classes. She said "I am not interested." Despite what
she said, two years later Vera showed up in class. Her friends had kept
suggesting it to her and what she read in various articles finally interested
her. She dove into the work and in 2006 participated in the month-long
DanceAbility Teacher Certification course held at ImPulsTanz. Now she choreographs,
performs and teaches dance around Austria and is getting invitations from
beyond as well.
About eight years ago, a group of about ten
people from an institution for people with mental disabilities started
attending DanceAbility classes every summer. Staff members came as well. Maria
was a woman from this group with autism. She was very intimidated in class, and
was afraid to develop relationships or explore her own movement possiblities.
She hardly met eyes with anybody. Besides coming every summer to my class, a
staff member continued working with the material in regular classes at the
facility. It is remarkable how Maria has changed over the years. Now she is
fully involved with the other dancers, engaged in expanding her movement range
and developing movement relationships, and looks at people directly. Are we
people taking dance classes to be better dancers? Or maybe we are learning how
to be better humans through dance, learning to embrace and celebrate our own
and each other's potential.
This text is partially adapted from an
essay by Alessi and Zolbrod in the anthology "Dance, Human Rights, and Social
Justice – Dignity in Motion", edited by Naomi Jackson and Toni Shapiro-Phim.
(July 6, 2008)
This is the website of DanceAbility!
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