Physically integrated dance

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The physically integrated dance movement is part of the disability culture movement, which recognizes and celebrates the first-person experience of disability, not as a medical model construct but as a social phenomenon, through artistic, literary, and other creative means.[1][2]

Some physically integrated dance companies are:

AXIS Dance Company

AXIS Dance Company is a professional contemporary dance company and dance education organization based in Oakland, California. It was founded in 1987 and was one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities. Their work has received seven Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and nine additional nominations for both their artistry and production values.

Candoco

Candoco Dance Company is a British contemporary dance company of disabled and non-disabled dancers, founded in 1991 by Celeste Dandeker and Adam Benjamin. Dandeker, who had previously trained with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, suffered a fall whilst dancing on stage.[3] The resulting spinal injury prevented her from dancing until choreographer Darshan Singh Buller persuaded her to dance again, albeit from her wheelchair, for the subsequently award-winning dance film The Fall.[4] From this, Dandeker took inspiration to create Candoco, which, since its inception, has been creating an inclusive dance practice.[5]

Dancing Wheels

The Dancing Wheels Company is a professional dance company based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1980, it was the first in America to stage performances involving dancers with and without disabilities.[6] The company uses its performances to enhance public awareness of disability issues and promote social change.[7]

DV8 Physical Theatre

DV8 Physical Theatre was formed in 1986 by an independent collective of British dancers who, they claim, had become frustrated and disillusioned with the preoccupation and direction of most dance. The company has produced 16 dance pieces, which have toured internationally, and 4 award-winning films for television. They are performing works that break down the barriers between dance, theatre, and personal politics and, above all, communicate ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously. Dancers and production staff include people with disabilities, for example in the company's film The Cost of Living.

Remix Dance Project

Remix Dance Project is a South African contemporary dance company that "brings together performers with physical disabilities and performers without."[8] It concentrates on the contemporary dance genre, with its activities focused on education and the creation of "performances that are intriguing and intelligent".[8]

Restless Dance Theatre

Restless Dance Theatre is a physically integrated dance company based in Adelaide, Australia.[9] The company has three core areas of activity: a community workshop program for small children with intellectual disability, a core performance group of 15 - 26 year olds with and without disabilities who work in collaboration with professional artists and a touring company of professional dancers.[10]

Amici Dance Theatre Company

The Amici Dance Theatre Company, founded by Wolfgang Stange in 1980 and based in London, UK, includes dancers with physical and also mental disabilities. The approach of Stange has been described as one that directly incorporates each dancer's unique qualities into the dance:
Where others saw limitation, Stange saw potential. Where others saw a medical condition, Stange saw the possibility of a new form of expression. Like Holger, he believed that the key to performance was honesty: the presentation of the authentic self. Everyone could be honest, so everyone had something to offer.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pelka, Fred (1997). ABC-CLIO Companion to the Disability Rights Movement. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 97. ISBN 0-87436-834-0.
  2. ↑ Kuppers, Petra (2011). Disability Culture and Community Performance: Find a Strange and Twisted Shape. Houndmills and New York: Palgrave. ISBN 978-0-230-29827-9. 
  3. ↑ Roy, Sanjoy (6 January 2009). "Step-by-step guide to dance: Candoco". Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 13 September 2010. 
  4. ↑ McCarthy, Suzanne (28 March 2002). "Celeste Dandeker...Anything But Bland". ballet.magazine. Retrieved 13 September 2010. 
  5. ↑ "background". Candoco Dance Company. Retrieved 13 September 2010. 
  6. ↑ Austin, Kristin (February 1, 2011). "Company demonstrates that there is no such thing as a disability when it comes to dance". mlive.com. Retrieved February 7, 2011. 
  7. ↑ Quinlan, Margaret M (December 2010). "Communicating Through Dance". Communication Currents 5. Washington, DC: National Communication Association. Retrieved February 7, 2011. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "History". Remix Dance Project. Retrieved 9 October 2010. 
  9. ↑ "Find Us — Restless Dance Theatre". Restlessdance.org. Retrieved 2013-04-05. 
  10. ↑ "What — Restless Dance Theatre". Restlessdance.org. Retrieved 2013-04-05. 
  11. ↑ Jennings, Luke (27 June 2010). "Amici Dance Theatre Company: Tightrope". The Guardian (The Observer). Retrieved June 12, 2012. 

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