BREAKING the MOLD: Re-imaging Dance and Disability

In 1996, I attended a performance by AXIS Dance Company at the Boston Cyclorama. Their mission, since 1987, has been “to create and perform high quality contemporary dance that is developed through the collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities (retrieved 3/2/08). My interest in attending their “physically integrated dance” performance and, later, master-class was prior work with adults in rehabilitation for spinal chord injuries and children with disabilities in the Boston public schools…and a love of dance.

The excitement for me is in the artistry of Axis Dance Company. They are not looking to choreograph movement that matches the desires and images of dance, grace and virtuosity that an audience might expect in a dance performance. They seek movement that is expressive, authentic and thrilling to their bodies. For my work as artist educator and dance therapist, they gave me the priceless gift of possibility: they redefined the definitions of dance, disability and what it means to be in the body. They also confirmed a belief I held in the power of performance to heal and reformulate body image (dissimilar to many of the messages I was receiving at the time, both in the media and in my professional training).

Last spring, I was invited to a benefit performance by local interdisciplinary artist, Lisa Bufano, before her journey west to join Axis. Recalling the expressive image on the brochure, of this young woman with multiple amputations, I was motivated to see what AXIS was up to these days:
On the website, under “what’s new” you will be introduced to Lisa and her story, under “performances” you will find an Image Gallery and under “education” a comprehensive list of books, articles, fiction, nonfiction, resources for teachers and children, videos and websites on dance and disability. There is a link to Ways to Dance, an essay by dancer Uli Schmitz, written for the 1998 Internet Conference on Art and Disability. Upon seeing AXIS perform for the first time, he, himself disabled from polio, “…realize[d] and appreciate[d] the different qualities of their movement; the fluidity, the effortlessness and the power that can be unleashed by an electric wheelchair…this particular image of power, for example, becomes emotionally gripping because it contradicts the usual stereotypes of the helpless disabled person” (Schmitz, 1998, p.3).
Visit the website and see if you agree!
Nancy Jo

http://www.axisdance.org
http://www.axisdance.org/education_resources_articles.php for Schmitz essay and links to websites such as Disability Arts Online