Helping Dance Reflect the Diversity of Disability
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Christine Bruno — an actor and director with a disability who has worked as an advocate for more than 12 years — is part of the DDA’s task force. For her, the study was a game changer. “We all knew disabled artists were underrepresented,” she says. “But you need hard data for people to pay attention.”
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Cifuentes says watching these inclusive companies has enhanced her knowledge of and appreciation for artists with disabilities, and she hopes other dance fans will have a similar awakening. “Unlike Christine, I don’t have three decades advocating for disability,” she says. “So I’ve been struck by how the artists engage in such a critical, constructive way. The first company that brought this out for me was ,” whose repertoire includes The GIMP Project, a series of dance works featuring “unconventional casts,” including a bilateral amputee. “The intentionality behind the art-making blew me away. Heidi’s work isn’t focused on the idea of ‘despite of’ that so many ableists highlight. Or take Kinetic Light,” a collaboration between three artists who use wheelchairs: dancer/ choreographer Alice Sheppard, dancer Laurel Lawson, and lighting and projection designer Michael Maag. “Their work is defined by all the ways scenery and technology are useful for storytelling. That redefines what a disabled dancer is and isn’t ‘allowed’ to do on stage.”
In addition to the performances, the DDA hopes to impact the dialogue around dance and disability by hosting a series of conversations with advocates, and educating artists and audiences about appropriate terminology; for example: wheelchair user not wheelchair-bound, or putting the individual first and the disability second, as in a person who is blind instead of a blind person. “It’s important because the way we use language creates concepts, which work their way into legislation and policies, as well as how people categorize and judge others’ experiences,” says Cifuentes. “The cultural reality is that the world is made for and structured to benefit those without disabilities. By nature, that creates an exclusion of people with disabilities. Ableist language is a huge component we are focusing on.”
Bruno, who helped choose the DDA Fund’s grantees, admits that advocating for inclusion in dance, as opposed to other artistic disciplines, can be particularly challenging. “Sometimes dance offers a very specific idea of what ‘dance’ is,” she says. “That’s an even harder nut to crack with implicit bias. When a dance artist can break through that for an audience member used to seeing ‘traditional’ dance, that’s huge. The DDA Fund recipients have that ability.”
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Lauren Kay regularly contributes to TDF Stages.
Top image: Dancing Wheels Company & School.
LAUREN KAY