People understand the work.
I mean, one audience member said,
And people notice the hand placement on the wheels
and how we touch and stroke and move and push.
These are things that are known
to people who are really working through that.
And it's not to say that you can't appreciate it
if you don't have that lived embodiment,
but it is to say that
We are making work that comes from long training,
experience as artists, as dancers, as choreographers
working within the canon of Western concert dance.
We are bringing in technique that is authentic
to our embodiment
- So much of the work that we see
explains something about disabled life
to non-disabled audiences.
We're not making work that tells you
what is it like to be me,
what is it like to live in my body.
We're not looking to hide impairment.
We're not looking even to make
the flat statement of impairment.
We're making work that arises
- Just as little girls go to [New York City Ballet]
and they look at the prima ballerina
up there en pointe in the pas
and they identify with that and they want to be that,
we have those children, we have disabled children,
we have queer children, children of all races
who can come and recognize themselves
and identify and have that spark of desire
to participate in art, participate in cultural life.
I don't wanna like, tricks, I don't want
the physically spectacular where you come away going, ah!
I didn't see the disability, I didn't see the wheelchairs.
Oh, they can do so much.
Oh, are they actually disabled?
Do they need those?
No.
When you are truly with me and when I am truly with you
on stage, I am on the edge of my seat
because I am drawn into the world
that you have invited me into.
I want to be able to issue an invitation,
I want you to accept that invitation,
and then I want us to have a journey
through a five minute piece, a 10 minute piece,
an evening-long work, so that at the end
when the lights go to black,
we have both experienced something.
- That's why dance is a live art.
Kinetic Light is a collective of disabled artists.
It is, I believe, the first professional
disabled artist collective certainly in North America.
But we don't stop at artistic equity.
We're talking about equity for every audience member.
And by equitable, I mean something much more impactful
than how do you make it accessible?
But equity for every person
who comes through that experience matters.
I want you here.
- Dance is an incredibly hard skill,
particularly learning as an adult.
I was terrible.
- I sucked. (laughs)
Oh, man.
Not only did I suck, I mean,
I just couldn't put the stuff together.
But I did.
And I resigned my job.
I was like, I am going to become a dancer
even if this doesn't work,
And now 10, 11, 12 years later,
If you're watching this and you wanna figure out,
wherever you are, how to dance, where to dance,
how to get started, how to connect
with the rest of the community that's doing this work,
Just know that you don't have to be alone in the studio
literally reinventing the wheel.
There's a wide community of us out there,
and there are professional training opportunities.
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