Description
Book SynopsisThis collection is the first book to focus on the intersection of dance, disability, and the law. Bringing together a range of writers from different disciplines, it considers the question of how we value, validate, and speak about diversity in performance practice, with a specific focus on the experience of differently-abled dance artists within the changing world of the arts in the United Kingdom. Contributors address the legal frameworks that support or inhibit the work of disabled dancers and explore factors that affect their full participation, including those related to policy, arts funding, dance criticism, and audience reception.
Trade ReviewThe six coeditors of this reference, who are variously scholars of dance and law, focus on the nexus between normative (often idealized) dance, what the British call disabled dance, and the law. The text highlights the fact that dancers with disabilities don’t conform to the expected parameters of athleticism and grace that epitomize most able-bodied performance. These dancers are often marginalized, and public awareness of the vast talent expressed by dancers with disabilities is therefore limited; the audience has very different expectations of the performance of a dancer with a disability versus an able-bodied performer's. The volume's contributors are chiefly British; most are performers with a disability who share their experiences and knowledge, highlighting both the challenges faced on a daily basis as well as the passionate joy of creating an enjoyable production. Many productions described in this text aim to dismantle societal stereotypes of disability by inviting the audience to experience the dynamics of living with a disability. Equal rights and accessibility to events are mandated by the Disability Discrimination Act of Britain. Though focused on the UK, this text offers an engaging look at a relatively understudied community.
-- D. J. Winchester * Choice Connect, Vol 56. No. 6 *
Table of ContentsPreface Sita Popat Introduction Sarah Whatley, Charlotte Waelde, Shawn Harmon, Abbe Brown, Karen Wood, Kate Marsh and Mathilde Pavis
Section I: Disability, Dance and Critical Frameworks Chapter 1: Disabled Dance: Barriers to Proper Inclusion within Our Cultural Milieu
Shawn Harmon, Charlotte Waelde and Sarah Whatley Chapter 2: Cultural Heritage and the Unseen Community
Fiona Macmillan Chapter 3: An Analysis of Reporting and Monitoring in Relation to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Right to Participation in Cultural Life and Intellectual Property
Catherine Easton Chapter 4: A Dance of Difference: The Tripartite Model of Disability and the Cultural Heritage of Dance
David Bolt and Heidi Mapley Chapter 5: In a Different Light? Broadening the Bioethics Perspective through Dance
Shawn Harmon
Section II: Disability, Dance and the Demands of a New Aesthetic Chapter 6: A Wondering (in Three Parts)
Luke Pell Chapter 7: A New Foundation: Physical Integrity, Disabled Dance and Cultural Heritage
Abbe Brown, Shawn Harmon, Kate Marsh, Mathilde Pavis, Charlotte Waelde, Sarah Whatley and Karen Wood Chapter 8: Disability and Dance: The Disabled Sublime or Joyful Encounters?
Janice Richardson Chapter 9: Moving Towards a New Aesthetic: Dance and Disability
Shawn Harmon, Kate Marsh, Sarah Whatley and Karen Wood Chapter 10: What We Can Do with Choreography, and What Choreography Can Do with Us
A conversation between Catherine Long and Nicola Conibere Chapter 11: Dancing Identity: The Journey from Freak to Hero and Beyond
Eimir McGrath Chapter 12: Dance Disability and Aesthetics: A Changing Discourse
Margaret Ames
Section III: Disability, Dance and Audience Engagement Chapter 13: The (Disabled) Artist Is Present
Claire Cunningham Chapter 14: Disability, Disabled Dance Audiences and the Dilemma of Neuroaesthetic Approaches to Perception and Interpretation
Bree Hadley Chapter 15: Finding It When You Get There
Adam Benjamin
