As an art form, contemporary dance has a reputation for being inventive
and questioning the status quo,
work that challenges what a performance can be, what it can look like
and how a dancer's body can move.
In recent years, dance that includes disabled dancers
or is created by disabled choreographers
has become an important part of this conversation.
(CONVERSATION INAUDIBLE)
As Artistic Director of London's international dance festival,
Dance Umbrella, a crucial part of my job
is to explore definitions of contemporary choreography.
I want to take a closer look at how disabled dance artists are making their mark.
So, who are the disabled choreographers shaking up the contemporary dance world,
who are the next generation coming through
and what does the wider dance sector think of their work?
Janice Parker is an award-winning Scottish choreographer
who has been leading a unique mentoring project in Barcelona,
with the British Council, aimed at supporting local disabled dancers
to consider taking up choreography.
I asked her what she feels disabled practitioners can bring to dance.
JANICE: We have to ask the question, "Who can dance and what can dance be?"
We have a sense of a hierarchy
of a normative form at the top, which has two arms and two legs!
And it's very dominant at the moment, in our culture.
How can we turn that round,
not to put something at the bottom of the hierarchy, but to make a spectrum?
There's all different vocabularies in there and dance needs them all.
Disabled people have that capacity
to create extraordinary movement
that has a whole other spectrum and vocabulary in there.
EMMA: The extraordinary movement that Janice describes
is very much evident in the work of Scottish choreographer and dancer, Claire Cunningham.
One of a number of disabled choreographers
making an impact on the contemporary dance world,
Claire's work incorporates the crutches she uses in her everyday life.
CLAIRE: I am more interested in movement that comes...
very much from an individual.
I find I get increasingly bored
by watching work where everybody's trying to look the same.
There is a tendency to be trying to make work for this ideal non-disabled body.
I find myself far more interested in watching bodies that have a difference
and have an individuality to them,
and aren't trying to impersonate the choreographer's body
or an "ideal body" that they think they should have.
For me, there are always questions around what that lived experience is,
of the fact that we might spend more of our time being observed generally, anyway,
and "performing", in a way, publicly.
Whether we mean to or not, we're being observed a lot of the time
because people look at you because you're different and you move differently.
And whether that is something that comes on stage with us.
Whilst there are companies and works that feature disabled dancers,
new works made by disabled choreographers are less common.
Even rarer are examples of disabled choreographers
being invited to share their artistic vision and create on non-disabled dancers.
I've come along to British Dance Edition,
a biennial presentation of British dance to international promoters and producers,
to catch up with the UK-based Australian artist, Dan Daw,
who has recently begun choreographing after many years as a dancer.
I started by asking him why he'd made this transition.
DAN: I wanted to find a way I could have more of an artistic voice.
[♪ ELECTRONIC PULSE]
As a company dancer,
I did have a say, artistically,
up to a point and I did feel I was very much a contributor.
Whereas, when I'm curating work myself, I'm really involved in the process
of how it's going to happen, when it's going to happen,
why it's going to happen.
I'm still learning about how receptive and responsive audiences are
to disabled makers.
Essentially, because I advocate for it being about the work,
I'm really interested in presenting my work
in places that don't necessarily have a disability focus.
For me, it's about the recognition by the dance industry
that there is a cultural shift
and to really embrace that and to not be scared of it.
EMMA: The desire for a cultural shift
and greater integration of work authored by disabled artists
is a sentiment echoed by Honne Dohrmann, Director of the influential Tanzmainz,
the contemporary dance ensemble of the Staatstheater Mainz.
I hope very much for the artists and for the European sector
that we, in a positive sense, "get used to it".
That they are not treated as artists in a niche.
Maybe as artists who need special conditions —
but as artists like others.
Do they have to say something? Is it unique?
How is it about the quality of the work,
the development of the work through the years?
They should be normally compared with other works
and we, as presenters, have to find out
what is their specific strength
and present them in a good frame.
EMMA: It seems like everyone has a role to play —
the artists, the programmers and the audience.
How do we take these efforts to the next level?
How does the sector encourage and support
the next generation of disabled choreographers?
In order to nurture and support disabled artists,
I think the most important thing is to regularly present them,
to get the critics used to seeing the work of disabled artists
in order that they get a fair and concrete critique,
which is constructive and helping.
This is missing sometimes, I think.
The last one is to make promoters, presenters, artistic directors aware
of what are the possibilities for collaboration with disabled artists
as dramaturges, as choreographers for non-disabled dancers.
Dance is all the richer for the contribution of disabled choreographers,
but for the art form to remain bold and relevant,
I believe we all need to remain open
to the important questions raised by these artistic pioneers.