Discussing Disability in Dance Book

One in four people in the US has a disability that impacts a major part of their life according to a 2018 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What if the dance world reflected that statistic?

The Discussing Disability in Dance Book Project seeks to investigate stereotypes often used to describe professional dancers with disabilities. Spearheaded by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen with illustrations by visual artist Liz Brent-Maldonado, the team has interviewed 35 professional dance artists with disabilities around the country and world, asking about training, access, and press, as well as looking at the state of the field.

The book will be available for purchase spring 2022.

The dancers interviewed:

Yulia Arakelyan: “It’s Not ‘Despite,’ It’s Because Of Our Unique Bodies”

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Marc Brew: “I Claim It: I Am A Disabled Man”

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Sidiki Conde: “Dance Is About Happiness”

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Suzanne Cowan: “I Can’t Be Reduced to One Thing”

Charlene Curtiss: “They’re Missing the Best Part”

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Christelle Dreyer: “We Have to Prove We Can Move”

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Erik Ferguson: “Dancing is How the Body Learns”

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Kayla Hamilton: “Do I Need To Name It?”

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Jerron Herman: “A Political Understanding of Disability”

Antoine Hunter: “I Move My Body and I Communicate”

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Maika Karhunen: “I Can Make Space For Myself”

Kelcie Laube: “It’s About The Relationship”

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Laurel Lawson: “We’re Fighting for Artistic Acceptance”

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Kris Lenzo: “An Opportunity to Educate”

Kitty Lunn: “I’m Waiting for the World to Catch Up with Me”

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Toby MacNutt: “It’s Both And”

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Luca Patuelli: “Dance Can Be Organically Inclusive”

Mark Travis Rivera: “The Nuances of Multi-Identity”

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Evan Ruggiero: “Just Another Hustling Artist”

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Hannah Sampson: “How We Respect and Treat Each Other”

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Bill Shannon: “Space, Light, Time, and The Human Condition”

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Alice Sheppard: “I Want to Build a Network of Legacy”

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