Strategic Abilities: Negotiating
the Disabled Body in Dance
ANN COOPER
ALBRIGHT
From “Moving history/dancing cultures: a dance history reader,”
by Ann Cooper Albright, c2001.
T
he dance's opening image haunted me long before
I take my place in total darkness, carefully situating
I ever choreographed the piece. Indeed, it was the
myself in the backless wheelchair set center stage.
power of this image-its
visual and physical effect on
Gradually a square frame of light comes up around me
gave me the courage both co create a per-
to reveal the glint of metal and the softness of my
formance about the undoing of my life as I knew it and
naked flesh. I am still for a long time, allowing the au-
me-that
to stage it in the middle of a dance concert. Through this
dience time to absorb this image, and giving myself
process of performing rhe unperformable, of telling the
time to experience the physical and emotional vulnera-
untold story, of staging the antithesis of my identity as a
bility that is central to this performance. I focus on my
dance professional, I began to reclaim the expressive
breathing,
allowing it to expand through my back.
Soon, I can feel the audience beginning to notice the
power of my body.
What do you see' A back' A backless wheelchair' A
small motions of the constant expansion and contrac-
woman? A nude? Do you see pain or pleasure? Are you
tion of my breathing. This moment is interrupted by a
in pain or pleasure? How do you see me?
recorded voice which tells the mythic story of another
likely
you don't see a dancer, for the com-
woman many centuries ago, whose parents carved the
bined discourses of idealized femininity and aesthetic
names of their enemies onto her back. The first image
virtuosity which serve to regulate theatrical dancing
fades into blackness as my voice continues:
Most
throughout much of the Western world refuse the very
possibility of this opening moment. As a dancer, I am
a body on display. As a body on display, I am expected
to reside within a certain continuum
of fitness and
bodily control, not to mention sexuality and beauty.
Bur as a woman in a wheelchair, I am neither expected
to
be a dancer nor to position myself in front of an au-
dience's gaze. In doing this performance, I confronted
a whole host of contradictions both within myself and
Two years ago, when I was severely, albeit temporarily, disabled, this scene from Maxine Hong
Kingston's The Woman warrior kept reappearing in
my dreams. I see now that disability is like those
knives that cur and marked her skin. Sometimes it
leaves physical scars, but mostly it marks one's psyche, preying upon one's sense of well-being with a
deep recognition of rhe frailty of life.
within the audience. The work was a conscious at-
Whar followed when rhe lighrs came up again was a
tempt to both deconstruct the representational codes
performance about disability-both
of dance production
and communicate
cultural construc-
an "other"
tions of disability and the textures of my own experi-
bodily reality. It was also one of the hardest pieces I've
ences with disability. The spoken text was structured
ever performed.
around stories, stories about my son's frantic first days
8. Ann Cooper Albright
performing a dance about
disability. Phoro by John
Seyfried.
of life in intensive care, about my grandfather's life
technical dancing (artistic interpretation),
or was this
with multiple sclerosis and the recent diagnosis of MS
all that I could accomplish (aesthetic limitation)? And
in one of my students, as well as the story of my own
why would I, a dance professor, want to expose myself
spinal degeneration and episodes of partial paralysis.
(including my ample buttocks and disfigured spine)
These bodily histories interlaced with my dancing to
like that anyway? Given that Western theatrical dance
provide a genealogy of gestures, emotional states, and
has traditionally been structured
physical experiences surrounding many of our personal
mindset that projects a very narrow vision of a dancer
and social reactions to disability.
as white, female, thin, long-limbed, flexible, heterosex-
Because my performance was staged on a body at
by an exclusionary
ual, and able-bodied, my desire to stage the cultural
once marked by the physical and psychic scars of dis-
antithesis of the fit, healrhy body disrupted the con-
ability and yet unmarked
ventional voyeuristic pleasures inherent in watching
by any specifically visible
physical limitation, I was consciously challenging the
most dancers. Traditionally, when dancers take their
usual representational
place in front of the spotlight, they are displayed in
codes of theatrical dance. In-
deed, I wanted the audience to be put off balance, not
ways that accentuate
knowing whether this was an enactment of disability
prowess and sexual desirability (the latter being im-
or the real thing. Was this artistic expression or autobi-
plicir in the very fact of a body's visual availability). In
ographical
contrast, the disabled body is supposed to be covered
confession? Did I choose not to do more
the double role of technical
Strategic Abilities: Negotiating the Disabled Body in Dance I 57
up or hidden from view,
to
be compensated for or
of the term disabiliry from an either/or paradigm ro a
overcome (either lirerally or metaphorically) in an at-
continuum which might include not only the most
live as "normal"a life as possible. When a dis-
easily identifiable disabilities, such as some mobility
tempt
to
abled dancer takes the stage, he or she stakes claim ro a
impairments, but also less visible disabilities, including
radical space, an unruly location where disparate as-
ones such as eating disorders and histories of severe
me that all of these disabilitiespro-
sumptions about representation, subjectivity, and vi-
abuse. It seems
sual pleasure collide with one another.
foundly affect one's physical position in the world, al-
This is an essay about dance and disability. It is an
to
though they certainly don't all affect the accessibility of
essay which, on the one hand, will detail how Ameri-
the world in the same way.) Each year, rhe list grows
can culture constructs these realms of experience oppo-
longer as groups such as Mobility Junction (NYC),
sirionally in terms of either fit or frail, beautiful or
Danceability
ugly, and, on the other hand, will discuss the growing
land), Cleveland Ballet Dancing Wheels (Cleveland),
desire among various dance communities and profes-
Light Motion (Seattle), and Candoeo (England) inspire
(Eugene), Diverse Dance (Vachon is-
sional companies ro challenge this binary paradigm by
other dance communities to engage with this work. In
reenvisioning just what kind of movements can consti-
addition, there are several dance companies. such as Liz
tute a dance and, by extension, what kind of body can
Lerman's Dancers of the Third Age, which work with
constitute a dancer. It is an essay about a cultural
older performers. as well as various contemporary cho-
movement (in both the political and physical senses of
reographerswho consistently work with nontraditional
the word) that radically revises the aesthetic structures
performers from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
of dance performances and just as radically extends the
These include dance artists such as Johanna Boyce,
theoretical space of disability studies into the realm of
Ann Carlson, David Dorfman, and Jennifer Monson,
mention only a few. Unfortunately, the radicalwork
live performing bodies. This intersection of dance and
to
disability is an extraordinarily rich site at which
of these groups is often tokenized in the dance pressin
to
ex-
plore the overlapping constructions of the body's phys-
terms of "special"human interest profiles rather than
ical ability, subjectivity, and cultural visibility that are
choreographic rigor. Of course this critical marginal-
implicated within many of our dominant cultural par-
ization implicitly suggests that this new work, while
adigms of health and self-determination.
important, won't really disrupt the existing aesthetic
Excavating
the social meanings of these constructions is like an ar-
structures of cultural institutions. For instance, when
chaeological dig inro the deep psychic fears that dis-
Dancing Wheels, a group dedicated to promoting "the
ability creares within the field of professional dance. In
diversity of dance and the abilities of artistswith physi-
order
cal challenges," joined up with the Cleveland Ballet in
to
examine ablisr preconceptions in the dance
world, one must confront both the ideological and
t990 (to become Cleveland Ballet Dancing Wheels), it
symbolic meanings that the disabled body holds in our
was as an educational and outreach extension of the
culture. as well as the practical conditions of disability.
mainstream arts organization. The Dancing Wheels
Watching disabled bodies dancing forces us ro see with
dancers rarely perform in the company's regular reper-
recognize that while a
toire, and certainly never in classical works such as Bal-
dance performance is grounded in the physical capaci-
anchine's Serenade. Even in the less mainstream exam-
ties of a dancer, it is not limited by them.
ples of integrated
a double vision, and helps us
to
dancing,
the financial reality of
Ovet the last seven years, I have followed the evolu-
grassroots arts organizations often means that nondis-
tion of various dance groups which are working to in-
abled dancers receive much more touring and teaching
tegrate
work than even the most highly renowned disabled
visibly
disabled
and
visibly
nondisabled
dancers. (I use the term "visibly" to shift the currency
dancers. It is still prohibitively expensive to travel as a
58 \ Moving History I Dancing Cultures
disabled person, especially if one needs to bring an aide
along.
and radically reform the representational
dance performances.
Even though
of disabled
many of us are familiar with the work
writers. artists, and musicians.
physically
structures of
But just as all disabilities are not
created equal, dances made with disabled dancers are
not completely alike. Many of these dances recreate the
disabled dancers arc still seen as a contradiction in
representational
terms. This is because dance, unlike other forms of cul-
formances, emphasizing
tural production
technical expertise to reaffirm a classical body in spite
such as books or painting, makes the
frames of traditional proscenium
per-
the elements of virtuosity and
body visible within the representation itself. Thus
of its limitations.
In contrast, some dances, particularly
with
those influenced
by the dance practice of contact im-
when we look at dance
disabled dancers, we are
looking at both the choreography and the disability.
provisation,
Cracking the porcelain image of the dancer as graceful
tween the classical and rhe grotesque body, radically re-
sylph. disabled dancers force the viewer to confront the
structuring
cultural opposite of the classical body-the
all dance created on disabled bodies must negotiate the
grotesque
work to break down the distinctions
be-
traditional ways of seeing dancers. While
body. I am using the term "grotesque" as Bakhtin in-
palpable contradictions
vokes it in his analysis of representation within Ra-
and deviant bodies, each piece meets this challenge in a
belais. In her discussion of carnival, spectacle, and
different way.
Bakhtinian
theory, Mary Russo identifies these two
bodily tropes in the following manner:
between the discourses of ideal
At the start of Gypsy, tall and elegant Todd Goodman enters pulling the ends of a long scarf wrapped
The grotesque body is the open, protruding,
around the shoulders of his parmer, M~ryVerdi-
extended, secreting body, the body of becoming,
Fletcher, gliding behind him. To the Gypsy Kings,
process, and change. The grotesque body is op-
he winds her in and out with the scarf Her bare
posed to the classical body, which is monumental,
shoulders tingle with the ecstasy of performing. She
static, closed and sleek, corresponding
rations of bourgeois individualism;
to the aspi-
the grotesque
to the rest of the world.'
body is connected
It is not my intention
to invoke old stereotypes of dis-
abled bodies as grotesque bodies. I employ rhese rerms
not to describe specific bodies, but rather to call upon
cultural
constructs
that deeply influence
our attitudes
flings back her head with trusting abandon as he
dips her deeply backward. Holding the fabric she
glides like a skater, alrernately releasing and regaining COntrol. At the climax he swoops her up in her
chair and whirls her around. Did I mention
Verdi-Fletcher dances in her
Gus Solomons's
toward bodies, particularly dancing bodies. Over the
scribes
past few years, I have felt this opposition
Cleveland
of classical
and grotesque bodies profoundly as I have fought my
dance
account
of a romantic
one of the first choreographic
Ballet Dancing
company
Wheels,
comprised
that
wheelchairi"
duet de-
ventures
of
a professional
of dancers
on legs and
way back to the stage. Look again at the opening image
dancers in wheelchairs.
of my performance
legs and wheels, Gypsy exrends the aesthetic heritage of
dancer
and then at any other image of a
in Dancemagazine,
or another popular dance
nineteenth-century
Essentially
Romantic
a pas de deux for
ballet into several in-
journal. The difference is striking, and I believe that it
triguing
has much
duet, Gypsy is built on an illusion of grace provided by
to do with the cultural separation between
these bodies."
Like a traditional
balletic
the fluid movements and physics of partnering. The
In the rest of this essay, I would like to explore the
transgressive
new directions.
nature of the "grotesque" body in order to
see if and how the disabled body could deconstruct
use of the fabric in conjunction
the movement
a continuous
to achieve on legs. When
with the wheels gives
quality
Solomons
Strategic Abilities: Negotiating the Disabled Body in Dance I 59
that is difficult
describes Verdi-
Fletcher's dancing as "gliding," he is describing mote
structural inclusion of people with disabilities in dance
than a metaphor; rather, he is transcribing the physical
training programs and performance venues, the con-
reality of her movement. Whether they are physically
servative aesthetic which guides much of Cleveland
touching Ot connected only by their silken umbilical
Ballet Dancing Wheels' performance work paradoxi-
cord, the dancers in this pas de deux partner one an-
cally reinforces, rather than disrupts. the negative con-
other with a combination of the delicacy of ballet and
notations of disability.
the mystery of tango.
The early 19800 genesis of Cleveland Ballet Dancing
Solomons is an African American dance critic and
independent
choreographer who has been involved in
the contemporary
Wheels is anecdotally
related by Cleveland Ballet's
artistic director Dennis Nahar, who recalls meeting
dance scene since his days dancing
Verdi-Fletcher at a reception when she introduced her-
in the 19705. An active mem-
self as a dancer and told him that she was interested in
for Mcree Cunningham
ber of the Dance Critics Association, he has spoken
dancing with the Cleveland Ballet. In the annotated
eloquently about the need to include diverse commu-
biography of Verdi-Fletcher's dance career which was
nities within our definitions of mainstream dance. And
commissioned for Dancing Wheels' fifteenth anniver-
yet Solomons, like many other liberal cultural critics
sary gala, Nahat is quoted as saying: "When I first saw
and arts reviewers, sets up in the above passage a pecu-
Mary perform. I said 'That is a dancer.' There was no
liar rhetoric which tries to deny difference. His remark,
mistake about it. She had the spark, the spirit that
"Did I mention
makes a dancer.t" I am interested in pursuing this no-
that Verdi-Fletcher
dances in her
wheelchair?" ·suggests that the presence of a dancer in a
tion of "spirir" a bit, especially as it is used frequently
wheelchair is merely an incidental detail that hardly in-
within the company's own press literature.
For in-
terrupts the seamless flow of the romantic pas de deux.
stance, in the elaborate press packet assembled for a
In assuming that disability does not make a (big) differ-
media event to celebrate the collaboration
with 10-
ence, this writer is, in fact, limiting the (real) difference
vacare Corporation's
that disability can make in radically refiguring how we
wheelchairs that are designed for extra case and mobil-
"Action Technology" (a line of
look at; conceive of. and organize bodies in the twenty-
ity), there is a picture of the company with the caption
first century. Why, for instance, does Solomons begin
''A Victory of Spirit ovet Body" underneath.
with a description of Goodman's able body as "tall and
I find this notion of a dancing "spirit" that tran-
elegant," and then fail to describe Verdi-Fletcher's body
scends the limitations of a disabled body rather troubling.
at all? Why do most articles on Verdi-Fletcher's seminal
Although it seems to signal liberatory language-one
dance company spend so much time celebrating how
should not be "confined" by social definitions of iden-
she has "overcome" her disability to "become" a dancer
tity based on bodily attributes (of race, gender, ability,
rather than inquiring how her bodily presence might
etc.)-this
radically refigure the very categoty of dancer itself?
of overcoming physical handicaps (the "supercrip" the-
The answers to these questions lie not only in an ex-
rhetoric is actually based on ablist notions
ory) in order to become a "real" dancer, one whose
amination of the critical reception of Gypsy and other
"spirit" doesn't let the limitations of her body get in the
choreographic ventures by Cleveland Ballet Dancing
way. Given that dancers' bodies are generally on dis-
Wheels, but also in an analysis of the ways in which
play in a performance. this commitment to "spirit over
this company paradoxically acknowledges and then
body" risks covering over or erasing disabled bodies
covers over the difference that disability makes. There
altogether. Just how do we represent spirit? Smiling
are contradictions
embedded within this company's
faces, joyful lifts into the air? The publicity photo-
differing aesthetic and social priorities; while their out-
graph of the company on the same page gives us one
reach work has laid an important groundwork for the
example of the visual downplaying of disabled bodies.
60 \ Moving History I Dancing Cultures
In this studio shot. the three dancers in wheelchairs
Verdi-Fletcher seems here
are arristically surrounded by rhe able-bodied dancers
which is doubly disempowering.
such that we can barely see the wheelchairs at all; in
Mary Verdi-Fletcher
to
be embracing a position
is a dancer, and like many
fact, Verdi-Flercher is raised up and closely flanked by
other dancers, both disabled and nondisabled, she has
four men such that she looks as if she is standing in
internalized an aesthetic of beauty, grace, and line
the third row. But most striking is the way in which
which, if not centered on a completely mobile body, is
the ballerina sirring on the right has ber long, slender
nonetheless
beholden
to an idealized body image.
legs extended across the bottom of the picture. The
There are very few professions where the struggle to
effect, oddly enough, is to fetishize these working legs
maintain a "perfect" (or at least near-perfect) body has
while at the same time making the "other" mobility-
taken up as much psychic and physical energy as in the
the wheels-invisible.
dance field. With few exceptions, this is true whether
I am not suggesting that this
minimize the visual
one's preferred technique is classical ballet. American
representation of disability. But this example shows us
modern dance, bharata naryam, or a form of African
photo was deliberately set up
to
that unless we consciously construct new images and
American dance. Although the styles and looks of bod-
ways of imaging the disabled body, we will inevitably end
ies favored by different dance cultures may allow for
up reproducing an ablist aesthetic. Although the text
some degree of variation (for instance, the director
jubilantly claims its identity, "Greetings from Cleve-
of Urban Bush Women, Jawole Willa Jo Zollae, talks
land Ballet Dancing Wheels," the picture normalizes
about the freedom to have and move one's butt in
the "difference"in bodies, reassuring prospective pre-
African dance as wonderfully liberating after years of
senters and the press that they won't see anything roo
being told
discomfiting.
professional dance is still inundated
to
tuck it in in modern dance classes), most
by body image
In a short but potent essay reflecting on the inter-
and weight issues. particularly for women. Even com-
connected issues of difference, disability, and identity
panies, such as the Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane Dance
politics entitled "Tbe Other Body," Ynestra King de-
Company, who pride themselves on the physical diver-
scribes a disabled woman in a wheelchair whom she
sity of their dancers, rarelyhave much variation among
sees on her way to work each day. "She can barely
the women dancers (all of whom are quite slim). Any
move. She has a pretty face, and tiny legs she could not
time a dancer'sbody is not completely svelte, the press
possibly walk on. Yet she wears black lace stockings
usually mentions it. In fact, the discourse of weight
and spike high heels. [ ... ] That she could flaunt her
and dieting in dance is so pervasive (especially, but
sexual being violates the code of acceptable appearance
certainly not exclusively for women) that we often
for a disabled woman.'" What appeals to King about
don't even register it anymore. I am constantly amazed
this woman's sartorial display is the way that she at
at dancers who have consciously deconsrructed tradi-
once refuses her cultural position as an asexual being
tional images of female dancers in their choreographic
and deconsrructs the icons of feminine sexuality (who
work, and yet still complain of their extra weight,
can really walk in those spike heels anyway?) Watching
wrinkles, gray hair, or sagging whatevers. As a body
Verdi-Fletcher perform btings us face to face with the
on display, the female dancer is subject to the regulat-
contradictions involved in being positioned as both a
ing gaze of the choreographer and the public, but nei-
classical dancer (at once sexualized and objectified),
ther of these gazes is usually quite as debilitating or op-
and a disabled woman (an asexual child who needs
pressive as the gaze which meets its own image in the
help). Yet instead of one position bringing tension to
mirror.
or fracturing the other (as in King's example of the dis-
I find it ironic that just as disability is finally begin-
abled woman with high heels and black lace stockings),
ning to enter the public consciousness and the inde-
Straregic Abilities: Negotiating the Disabled Body in Dance / 61
pendent living movement is beginning to gain mo-
and control within the disabled body. These groups
mentum, American culture is emphasizing with a pas-
have surely broadened the cultural imagination about
sion heretofore unfarhomed rhe need for physical and
who can become a dancer. However, they have not, to
bodily control." As King makes clear in her essay, this
my mind, fully deconsrructed the privileging of a cer-
ferishization of control marks the disabled body as the
tain kind of ability within dance. That more radical
anrithesis of the ideal body:
cultural work is currently taking place within the con-
It is no longer enough to be thin; one must have
ubiquitous muscle definition, nothing loose, flabby,
or ill defined, no fuzzy boundaries. And of course,
there's the importance of control. Control over aging, bodily processes, weight, fertility, muscle tone,
skin quality, and movement. Disabled women,
regardless of how thin, are without full bodily
control. (74)
tact improvisation community.
Giving a coherent description of contact improvisation is a tricky business, for the form has grown exponentially over time and has traveled through many
countries and dance communities. Although it was developed in the seventies, contact improvisation has recognizable roots in the social and aesthetic revolurions
of the sixties. Contact at once embraces the casual, individualistic, improvisatory ethos of social dancing in
This issue of control is, I am convinced, key
to
under-
addition
to
the experimentation with pedestrian and
standing not only the specific issues of prejudice
task-like movement favored by early postmodern
against the disabled, but also the larget symbolic place
dance groups such as the Judson Dance Theater. Re-
that disability holds in our culture's psychic imagina-
sisting both the idealized body of ballet as well as the
tion. In dance, the contrast between the classical and
dramatically expressive body of modern dance, contact
grotesque bodies is often framed in terms of physical
seeks to create what Cynthia Jean Cohen Bull calls a
control and technical virtuosity. Although the dancing
"responsive"body, one based in the physical exchange
body is moving and, in this sense, is alwayschanging and
of weight." Unlike many genres of dance which stress
in flux, the choreography or movement style can em-
the need
phasize images resonant of the classical body. For in-
tions to pull up, tighten, and place the body), the
stance, the statuesqueposes of ballet areclearicons of the
physical training of contact emphasizes the release of
classical body. So too, however, are the dancers in some
the body's weight into the floor or into a partner's
modern and contemporary companies which privilegean
body. In contact, the experience of internal sensations
abstract body, for example those coolly elegant bodies
and flow of the movement between two bodies is more
performing with the Merce Cunningham Dance Com-
important than-specific shapes or formal positions.
to
control one's movement (with admoni-
pany these days. Based as it is in the live body, dance con-
Dancers learn
tains the cultural anxiety that the grotesque body will
physical communication implicit within the dancing.
erupt (unexpectedly) through the image of the classical
Curt Siddall, an early exponent of contact improvisa-
body, shattering the illusion of ease and grace by the
tion, describes the form as a combination of kines-
disruptive presence of fleshy experience-heavy
to
move with a consciousness of the
breath-
thetic forces: "Contact Improvisation is a movement
ing, sweat, technical mistakes, physical injury, even evi-
form, improvisational in nature, involving the two
dence of a dancer'sage or mortality,
Although
companies
bodies in contact. Impulses, weight, and momentum
such as Cleveland
Ballet
are communicated through a point of physical contact
Dancing Wheels are producing work that stretches the
that continually rolls across and around the bodies of
categories of dance and dancing bodies, I feel that
the dancers."!
much of their work is srill informed by an ethos that
But human bodies, especially bodies in physical
reinstates classical conceptions of grace, speed, agility,
contact with one another, are difficult to see only
62 \ Moving History I Dancing Cultures
in terms of physical counterbalance, weight, and mo-
My first physical experience with this work occurred in
mentum.
the body as both literal
the spring of 1992 when I went to the annual Breitenbush
(the physics of weight) and metaphoric (evoking the
dance jam. Held in a hot springs retreatin Oregon. the
By interpreting
community body, for example), contact exposes the in-
Breirenbush Jam is not designed specifically for people
terconnectedness of social, physical, and aesthetic con-
with physical disabilities as are the DanceAbility work-
cerns. Indeed, an important part of contact improvisa-
shops, so I take it to be a measureof the successof true in-
tion today is a willingness
to allow the physical
tegration within the contact community that people
metaphors and narratives of love. power, and competi-
with various movement styles and physical abilities
tion
come
to
evolve from an original emphasis on the work-
to
participate as dancers. At the beginning of the
ings of a physical interaction. On first seeing contact,
jam, while we were introducing ourselves to the group,
people often wonder whether this is, in fact. pro-
Bruce Curtis, who was facilitating this particularexercise,
fessional dancing or rather a recreational or therapeutic
suggested that we go around in the circle to give each
form. Gone ate the formal lines of much classical
dancer an opportunity
dance. Gone are the traditional approaches to choreog-
physical needs and desires for the week of non-stop
raphy and the conventions of the proscenium stage. In
dancing. Curtis was speaking from the point of view
their place is an improvisational movement form based
that lors of people have special needs-nor
on the expressive communication involved when two
most obviously "disabled" ones. This awareness of ability
people begin to share rheir weight and physical sup-
as a continuum and not as an either/or situation al-
port. Instead of privileging an ideal type of body or
lowed everyone present
movement style, contact improvisation privileges a
necessarily categorizing oneself as abled or disabled
willingness to take physical and emotional risks, pro-
solely on the basis of physical capacity.
ducing a certain psychic disorientation in which the
to
to
talk about his or her own
just the
speak without the stigma of
Since that jam, I have had many more experiences
seemingly stable categories of able and disable become
dancing with people (including
dislodged.
physically disabled. Yet it would be disingenuous
Disability in professional dance has often been a
code for one type of disability-namely
the paralysis of
children)
who are
to
suggest that my first dancing with Curtis was just like
doing contact with anybody else. It wasn't-a
fact that
the lower body. Yet in contact-based gatherings such as
had more to do with my preconceptions than his phys-
the annual DanceAbility workshop and the Breiten-
icality. At first, I was scared of crushing his body. Afrer
bush Jam, the dancers have a much wider range of dis-
seeing him dance with other people more familiar with
abilities. including vision impairments, deafness, and
him, I recognized that he was up for some pretty feisty
neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy. Steve
dancing, and gradually I began to trust our physical
Paxton, one of the originators of the form, createsan apt
communication enough to be able to release the inter-
metaphor for this melange of talents when he writes:
nal alarm in my head that kept reminding me I was
dancing with someone with a disability (i.e., a fragile
A group including various disabilities is like a
body). My ability to move into a differenr dancing
United Nations of the senses. Instructions must be
relationship with Curtis was a result not only of con-
translated into specifics appropriate for those on
tact improvisation's open acceptance of any body, but
legs, wheels, crutches, and must be signed for the
also of irs rraining (both physical and psychic), which
deaf. Demonstrations must be verbalized for those
gave me the willingness to feel intensely awkward and
who can't see, which is in itself a translating skill,
uncomfortable. The issue was not whether I was danc-
because English is not a vety flexible language in
ing with a classical body or not, but rather whether I
terms of the body.'
could release the classical expectations of my own
Strategic Abilities: Negotiating the Disabled Body in Dance I 6)
body. Fortunately, the training in disorientation that is
with excess energy. Alessi responds in kind, and the
fundamental to contact helped me recreatemy body in
two men briefly engage in a good-natured rough and
response to his. As I move from dancer to critic, the
tumble wrestling march. After a while they become ex-
question which remains for me is: does contact im-
hausted and begin to settle down, slowly rolling side by
provisation reorganize our viewing priorities in the
side out of the performance space.
same way that it reorganized my physical priorities?
Earlier I argued that, precisely because the disabled
Emery Blackwell and Alito Alessi both live in Eu-
body is culturally coded as "grotesque," many inte-
gene, Oregon. a city specifically designed to be wheel-
grated dance groups emphasize the classical dimen-
chair accessible. Blackwell was the president of OIL
sions of the disabled body's movements-the
(Oregonians for Independent Living) until he resigned
wheelchair's gliding, the strength and agility of people's
in order
dance. Alessi, a veteran
upper bodies, etc. What intrigues me about Blackwell's
contacrer who has had various experiences with physi-
dancing in this duet is the fact that his movement at
cal disabilities (including an accident which severed the
once evokes images of the grotesque and then leads our
tendons on one ankle), has been coordinating the
eyes through the spectacle of his body into the experi-
DanceAbility
ence of his particular physicality. Paxton once wrote a
to
devote himself
to
workshops in Eugene for the last five
grace of a
years. In addition to their participation in this kind of
detailed description of Blaekwell's dancing which re-
forum, Blackwell and Alessi have been dancing to-
veals just how much the viewer becomes aware of the
gether for the past eight years. creating both choreo-
internal motivations as well as the external conse-
graphic works, such as their duet Wheels of Fortune.
quences of Blackwell's dancing.
and improvisational duets like the one I saw during a
performance at Breirenbush Jam.
Blackwell and Alessi's duet begins with Alessi rolling
around on the floor and Blackwell tolling around the
periphery of the performance space in a wheelchair.
Their eyes are focused on one another, creating a connection that gives their separate rolling motions a certain synchrony of purpose. Afrer several circles of the
space, Blackwell stops his wheelchair, all the while
looking at his partner. The intensity of his gaze is reflected in the constant vibrations of movement impulses in his head and hands, and his stare draws Alessi
closer
to
him. Blackwell offers Alessi a hand and initi-
ates a series of weight exchanges which begins with
Alessi gently leaning away from Blackwell's center of
weight and ends with him riding upside down on
Blackwell's lap. Later, Blackwell half slides. half wriggles out of his chair and walks on his knees over
to
Alessi. Arms outstretched, the two men mirror one an-
Emery has said that
to
get his arm raised above
his head requires about
20
seconds of imaging
to
accomplish. Extension and contraction impulses in
his muscles fire frequently and unpredictably, and
he must somehow select the right impulses consciously, or produce for himself a movement image
of the correct quality
to
get the arm to respond as
he wants. We observers can get entranced with
what he is doing with his mind. More objectively,
we can see that as he tries he excites his motor impulses and the random firing happens with more
vigor. His dancing has a built-in Carch-zz. And we
feel the quandary and see that he is pitched against
his nervous system and wins, with effort and a kind
of mechanism in his mind we able-bodied have not
had to learn. His facility with them allows us to feel
them subtly in our own minds.
to
Steve Paxton is considered by many people to be the
other until an erratic impulse brings Blackwell and
father of contact improvisation, for it was his work-
Alessi
the floor. They are rolling in tandem across
shop and performance ar Obetlin College in 1972 that
the floor when suddenly Blackwell's movement fre-
first sparked the experimentations that later became
quency fires up and his body literally begins to bounce
this dance form. Given Paxton'sengagement with con-
to
64 \ Moving History I Dancing Cultnres
tact for twenty-five years, it makes sense that he would
that I never once thought of giving up dancing. Con-
be an expert witness to Blackwell's dancing. Paxton's
tact helped me imagine other ways of moving, other
description of Blackwell's movement captures the way
ways to be fully present in my body. Although I still
in which contact improvisation focuses on the becom-
struggled with my own preconceptions about how to .
ing-the
dance, and although I still found it difficult to accept
improvisational
process of evolving which
never really reaches an endpoint. Contact improvisa-
the limitarions and boundaries of my changed physical
tion can represent rhe disabled body differently pre-
possibilities, I was deeply grateful for the model that
cisely because it doesn't try to recreate the aesthetic
the DanceAbiliry work gave me. Yet perhaps more im-
frames of the classical body or traditional dance con-
porrant than helping me to imagine how to dance with
texts. Despite their good intentions,
these situations
my disability, contact helped me continue to recon-
tend to marginalize anything but the most virtuosic
ceive dancing even as I began to regain my range of
movements. Contact, on the other hand, by concen-
motion and strength in my back. Suddenly I wasn't in-
trating on the becoming of a particular dance, refuses a
reresred in getting, as one self-help book put it, "back
static representation of disability, pulling the audience
into shape," for I didn't want simply to return to danc-
in as witness to the ongoing negotiations of that physi-
ing as I had experienced it before. Rather, I wanted to
cal experience. It is important
acknowledge this powerful legacy of disabiliry, ro keep
to
realize that Alessi's
dancing, by being responsive but not precious, helps to
provide the context for this kind of witnessing engage-
ir marked on my body.
Many of our ideas about autonomy, health, and
ment as well. In their duet, Alessi and Blackwell are en-
self-determination
gaged in an improvisational
in this late-twentieth-century
cul-
dialogue in
ture are based on a model of the body as an efficient
which each partner is moving and being moved by the
machine over which we should have total control. This
other. I find this duet compelling because it demon-
is particularly true of the current medical establish-
strates the extraordinary potential of bringing two peo-
ment, which is based upon an arrogant belief that doc-
ple with very different physical abilities together to
tors should be able to "fix" whatever goes wrong, re-
share in one another's motion. In this space between
turning us all as quickly as possible to that classical
movement
social dancing, combat, and physical intimacy, lies a
ideal. Talking over with doctors all the possible inter-
dance form whose open aesthetic and attentiveness to
ventions into my condition
the flexibility of movement identities can inform and
wasn't sure I wanted to take part in such a system. In-
be informed by any body's movement.
deed, these medical personnel never seemed to notice
Needless to say, my involvement with contact improvisation-training,
teaching, and researching the
made me realize that I
the irony in their contradictory advice, suggesting, on
the one hand, that I should retire from dancing (at the
form-s-during the last fifteen years has primed me to
ripe old age of thirty-four],
see these liberatory
and on the other hand
possibilities in this work. That
claiming that they could fix me up "as good as new"
training has also allowed me to reimagine my own
with the latest technological advances in surgery. What
physicaliry in the midsr of a disability. Although
they could never envision is that the experience of dis-
would not want
to
I
minimize the excruciatingly painful
ability was tremendously important to me-through
it
ptocess of dealing with a sudden and severe mobiliry
I began to really understand my own body and recog-
impairment-the
nize that no matter how limited, mine were strategic
exhaustion,
the intense and unre-
lenting pain, not to mention the aggravating bureaucracy of American medical insritutions-c-I was grateful
abilities.
I refused the surgery and made a dance.
Srraregic Abilities: Negotiating the Disabled Body in Dance / 65
Notes
Mary Russo, "Female Grotesques: Carnival and The-
nism, western Culture, and the Body (Berkeley: University of
ory," in Feminist Studies/Critical Studies, ed. Teresa de Lau-
California Press, 1993), and Emily Martin, Flexible Bodies:
retis (Bloomington:
The Role of Immunity in American Culture from the Days of
Polio to the Age of AIDS (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997).
7. Cynthia Jean Cohen Bull [Cynrhia Novack], Sharing
the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture
1.
2.
Indiana University Press, 1986),
Of course, it is important
219.
to recognize that almost
every category of cultural identity predicated on the body
(gender, class, race, sexuality, age, as well as ability) fits into
this classical/grotesque
divide.
(Madison:
3. Gus Solomons Jr., "Seven Men," Village 1iJice, March
University of Wisconsin Press, 1990), 186. For
references to Judson Dance Theater, see Sally Banes's work
on the era, especially Terpsichore in Sneakers and Democracy's
17,1992.
4. Melinda Ule-Grohol, Dance Movements in Time
(Cleveland: Professional Flair, 1995), r.
5. Ynestra King, "The Other Body," Ms., March/April
1993,74·
6. One might argue that this is no mere historical coincidence, but rather a very specific social backlash against
proactive groups working on disability issues. For further
discussions of how society molds bodies into its own ideo-
Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962-1964.
8. Curt Siddall, "Contact Improvisation," East Bay Review, September 1976, cited in John Gamble, "On Contact
Improvisation,"
Painted Bride Quarterly 4, nO.1 (spring
1977): 36,
9. Steve Paxton, "3 Days," Contact Quarterly 17; no. 1
(winter 1992): 13.
ro. Ibid., 16.
logical images, see Susan Bordo, Unbearable Weight: Femi-
66 \ Moving History / Dancing
Culrures