Dancers

This resource page has a few examples of dance, as well as interviews with artists about dance from decolonial, Deaf, and cross-disability perspectives. There are links to videos of dancers based on six continents, with a focus on the West Coast of Turtle Island.

If you are interested in volunteering to increase collective access for dance videos:
Next year (or sooner) the InterdepenDance Collective invites:
-volunteers who are hearing, to add captions to video excerpts that are not already captioned, and
-people who are part of disability communities, or who have diverse bodies/brains/senses, to collaborate on creating audio descriptions for video excerpts.
If interested, be in touch.

Below are a few examples of:

Some video excerpts are cued for a community get-together in January 2020. The links on this page were compiled by Joanne in collaboration with Lea, Tiffany and the InterdepenDance Collective. The research and curation for this resource page is courtesy of a.d.d. and a neuroqueer brain.

a) A few examples of contemporary dance:

1. All Bodies Dance Project – See & Be Seen (length: 12:50), captioned

2. Raven Spirit Dance – Earth Song, Northern Journey by Michelle Olson in collaboration with dancers Jeanette Kotowich and Brian Solomon (excerpt 3:08-5:46/7:05)

3. Musa Motha dancing during the Launch of Living Legends Trust, Johannesburg (0:21-3:30 end)

4. CRIPSiE & iDance Edmonton – New Constellation, 2012 (excerpt 4:15 – 6:12 or end)

5. Infinite Flow – Came Here for Love by Gabe Adams, Mia Schaikewitz, Marisa Hamamoto (length: 0:57), captioned

6. AXIS Dance Company – the beauty that was mine, through the middle, without stopping, 2007 (excerpt 0:47-4:30)

7. Blind People Dancing, 2017 – video description doesn’t provide names of dancers or company (dancing is from 0:56-6:40)

8. Alice Sheppard with Laurel Lawson and Kinetic Light – DESCENT [Preview] (length: 2:53), or Descent trailer (audio described) (length: 2:42)

9. Concuerpos – Inerme (“Unarmed”) 2018 site-specific performance at the Centre for Memory, Peace and Reconciliation in Bogotá, Colombia (length 2:23)

10. Sareyyet Ramallah and REVolutions Dance – Ramallah Palestine Mini-documentary. The translation of some words into English may have shifted the meaning that was intended, such as the use of the word “normal” instead of “non-disabled.” (excerpt 2:42-4:47), captioned speaking although is hard to read on the background

11. AXIS Dance Company – The Narrowing, 2012 (excerpt 0:00-2:14)

12. Aakash Odedra – Murmur 2.0 Trailer, collaborating with Lewis Major: Murmur “delves into the complex nature of learning differences, warped and exaggerated realities and the distinctive gifts that we are honoured with.” (length: 3:29)

13. Infinite Flow – Pliancy, 2019 (length: 1:36), captioned

14. All Bodies Dance Project – Trace Teaser (length: 1:22)

15. Infinite Flow – #InfiniteInclusion Flashmob (length: 4:46), captioned

b) A few examples of various dance styles:

1. Abilities Unlimited – Bharatanatyam on Wheelchairs (Bharatanatyam) (length: 2:21)

2. Sidiki Conde – You Don’t Need Feet to Dance (West African Dance) – a documentary about Sidiki, who leads All-Abilities West African Dance initiatives in New York and Guinea (length: 15:18. Or could watch a dance-focused excerpt: 13:28-15:18, after watching the Trailer for You Don’t Need Feet to Dance – trailer length is 1:30)

3. Blind Ballerinas in Brazil – news clip of performance excerpt (Ballet) (excerpt 2:13-2:52)

4. Liam Bird loves to pow wow dance – APTN (Powwow) (length: 0:39)

5. Asociación Flamenco Inclusivo José Galán – Muestra 2019 (Flamenco) (length: 4:28. dancing starts at 0:47. possible excerpt 2:03-3:57)

6. “Dynamite” Hip Hop – choreographed by Kima Dima – Infinite Flow (Hip Hop) (length: 1:10)

7. ILL-ABILITIES Crew (Breakdancing) (length: 2:07)

8. Rodney Bell – Sins Invalid Performance 2008 (Māori contemporary aerial dance) (length: 3:01)

9. Julius jun Obero and Rhea Marquez (Partner dance) (length: 2:28)

10. China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe: Thousand Hand Bodhisattva Dance (Chinese dance) (excerpt 1:31-9:42 end)

c) A few examples of dance from decolonial, Deaf, and disability perspectives:

Indigenous dancers:

Brian Solomon – Dancing into the future: how our bodies connect us to the earth (excerpt 0:15-2:19)

Madelaine McCallum – Dancing Through – trailer for documentary. Content note: speaking about cancer. (length 1:00)

Justin Many Fingers – Kaahsinnoniks (Our Ancestors) (length 2:48)

D/ancestors (dance ancestors):

Geoff McMurchy – Wingspan (length: 3:31). From the Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture website: ‘Geoff McMurchy (1955–2015), Kickstart’s founding Artistic Director, was a trailblazer in the local and international disability arts community, and influenced a huge number of people.’

Homer Avila – Balance (length 3:25)

Lisa Bufano – One Breath is an Ocean for a Wooden Heart (length: 3:20). Text description of Lisa Bufano’s piece and bio.

Deaf dancers:

Antoine Hunter – Feel the Beat: Dancing While Deaf (excerpt 0:00-2:32)

Tanisha Russell – interview (length: 4:11)

Shaheem Sanchez – interview on SoulPancake (length: 2:55)

Gallaudet Dance Company – Spring Concert 2012, no audio due to music copyrights (excerpt 2:42-3:55)

Deaf Culture Centre – The Black Drum 2019 Trailer for signed music musical (excerpt 0:00-0:34)

Dancing without sight, and with partial sight:

Mana Hashimoto – Presley performance – a tribute to her father (length: 5:14). Mana is the founder of Dance Without Sight. A quote from her website: “Let’s close our eyes, open our hearts, and experience a world of rich multisensory imagination.”

Benjamin Yonattan – contemporary dance performance on America’s Got Talent (excerpt: 1:00-3:05)

Zhao Yunhui – interview with ballet dancer on Chinese news (length: 2:51)

Gary Ferrer – interview with dance teacher who offers Ballet Folklorico lessons in his community in California (length: 1:59)

Samarthanam Group – Dance Performance (dancing starts at 3:15-8:25)

A few more perspectives on dance:

Dancing Disability 2019 short documentary (audio described) (length: 9:45), captioned

India Harville – excerpt from fundraiser stop at 2:18 (excerpt 0:28-2:18), captioned on Amara page

Hannah Sampson – interview (length: 2:59), captioned

Vanessa Cruz – interview (length: 4:25), captioned

Jerron Herman – Dancing Professionally with Cerebral Palsy (length: 2:35), captioned

Kerry Thompson – teaches salsa dancing as a way to bridge the gap between the DeafBlind community and the general community (length: 4:27), captioned

Stopgap Dance Company – Behind the scenes – dancers show how they’ve translated David Toole’s movement phrase (excerpt 0:00-2:37), captioned

Physically Being Me – Six Stories from Deaf and Disabled Dancers by Foundation for Community Dance (length: 8:00), captioned

Intersectional disability arts:

Alice Sheppard’s Learning Curve Campaign (length: 7:28), closed captioned

Otto Baxter of Drag Syndrome (length: 1:10), captioned

Neve Kamilah Mazique-Bianco – short excerpt from choreo reel (excerpt 2:06-2:47)

Danielle Peers and Lindsay Eales – Other-wise (audio described), with audio description by Joshua St. Pierre. Content note: film speaks about labels / violent language, and has one swear word towards the end. (length 3:42), captioned

Sins Invalid Film trailer. Content note: film speaks about being labelled/ violent language, and has a moment portraying interpersonal violence at 1:01-1:02. (length: 1:27), captioned

d) A few examples of creative access

Realwheels Theatre – Skydive World Premiere trailer for the 2014 PuSh Festival. The work includes an apparatus called the ES Dance Instrument (which was invented by the late Sven Johansson who premiered the instrument in Victoria in 1992). (length: 1:19)

INCLINATIONS teaser – Alice Sheppard, Danielle Peers and Disability Dance Works (length 0:38)

Bill Shannon in RJD2’s “Work It Out” music video directed by Joey Garfield (length: 3:24)

Carmen Papalia – Nonvisual Field Shuttle (length: 1:20) and Carmen Papalia – Mobility Device (length: 9:11)

All Bodies Dance Project and VocalEye – Translations Project Part 2. ‘Translations is an immersive performance for small audiences designed specifically for the “non-visual senses,” created in collaboration with artistic consultants from members of the blind community, and explores the tools of live description applied to contemporary dance.’ (length: 6:01), captioned

CRIPSiE – Some of Our Parts – choreographed by Lindsay Eales (excerpt 0:30-4:09)

Alice Sheppard and Kinetic Light – Research for DESCENT 2017 – this video has further reflections about the ramp (length: 6:11), closed captioned