Piloting Accessible Majorette Dance

An Interview with How We Move cohort artist Hector Machado

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT; PHOTOS BY WHITNEY BROWNE

Hector Machado is a multidisciplinary artist and performer based in Miami, FL, who performs with the Pioneer Winter Collective. They were a 2025 cohort artist of How We Move, a program for multiply marginalized disabled artists to move together, collaborate, and build cross-disability community. Here, Hector shares their passion for developing accessible majorette dance, a language and practice for bringing the majorette dance form to individuals with disabilities, as well as how How We Move gave them confidence to share accessible majorette dance more widely.

This interview is part of a series on How We Move.

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How did you get into dance and what shaped you as an artist?

Before I became an amputee, I did musical theater growing up, including tap and jazz. After I became an amputee in 2015, I moved back to Miami from Los Angeles. I’m part of Maven Leadership Collective for queer trans people of color who are leaders in the community. At a meeting, the choreographer Pioneer Winter was there. I told him I heard he had a dance company, that I had my MFA in Stage Management, and asked if he was looking for a stage manager. He asked if I still danced, and I was like, “Huh? No. I haven’t danced in this body yet.” He invited me to a rehearsal. At that first rehearsal, I was nervous and could barely get in and out of my chair on my own. But after that rehearsal, something clicked, and I started dancing with the Pioneer Winter Collective. It has been a journey. I’m 10 years in this body. Everything in my dance career has been through the collective, and more recently through the AXIS Choreo-Lab and How We Move. That journey has been tough at times and great as well. The first production I did was mostly danced in my chair. The second production, Pioneer wanted me to be on the floor and navigate space out of my chair. That was the best thing to happen because now I have two different movement vocabularies – one in my chair and one out of my chair. That’s made me a stronger dancer.

What was your experience of How We Move?

How We Move has been so transformative in how I want to make space for other differently abled dancers, as well as for able bodied dancers. Access is for everyone. It’s not just for those who are differently abled.

I had never done a collective agreement before. On the Zoom calls, we talked about how we would navigate the space together and the rules of the space. That was really important, and going forward, if I have a cast, this is how I want to begin: How do we want to make the space equitable for everyone? When we went into the physical space for the intensive, it made it easier because we had the rules of the space and we had the time online to get to know each other, so the hybrid meeting worked really well.

I do a practice called accessible majorette dance. I’ve been in love with majorette dance since I was a kid, and when I became an amputee, I thought I couldn’t do the art form anymore. When something doesn’t exist, we have to make it. For my workshop during How We Move, I wanted to give something I love that is fun and challenging at the same time, so I taught accessible majorette dance. JJ, Kayla, and India made the space so welcoming and flexible. When I taught my class, I did across the floor first because it’s fun and I wanted people to get into their bodies. It’s not the typical way to start a dance class, but I learned that the way I want to create can work for all bodies.

Sometimes in able bodied spaces, I put on myself that I’m representing all differently abled groups when I’m the only one. This was the first space I was in where we were all differently abled. It was very empowering because I saw these spaces can exist, where I can be my full self without apologizing for who I am. It was a transformative healing space that allowed me to be who I want to be. My heart was overflowing. At the end, I was a weeping willow because I did not want it to end.

Now I’m trying to create that space here in Miami. I taught my first accessible majorette dance class here in Miami because of the confidence I felt from How We Move.

Why are programs like How We Move important?

It’s important to have multiply marginalized spaces because being the only differently abled person in a dance space who is having to translate movement makes me question, “Am I doing this right?” because if I’m the only one, I have questions about if I’m translating it right or wrong. When multiple people have disabilities, we can take the time to translate. I feel like I get behind in learning choreography because I don’t have the time to translate movement on my body. I’m physically disabled but there might be someone with a neurological disability who needs more time to process. There are needs that everyone has that could be fostered better in able bodied spaces.

Will your experience of How We Move impact your artistic practice going forward? If so, how?

I’ve been working in my backyard for the past three years on accessible majorette dance. I was afraid of putting it out there. Pioneer Winter has a program called Creative Connections, where I was able to do an incubator of accessible majorette dance. Majorette is throw, catch, and repeat: The leader does the movement first, the group joins in, and the group does it by itself. Through the Creative Connections program, I saw what I was doing in my backyard kind of worked. From there, I did it at the AXIS Choreo-Lab. When I came to How We Move, I did the same thing. I was the first one to teach. I was nervous. At AXIS, it was a mixed group of people who were differently abled and not, but How We Move was all disabled. I was worried about if my work would hold up, and the class was great. I gained confidence that it worked. It was joyful, fun, and challenging. The joy everyone got from it has been with me.

I thought, I can do this, it works, it’s valid. I got out of my imposter syndrome. I taught accessible majorette dance in Miami, and it was the same energy. I brought the tools I learned from How We Move. I asked everyone’s access needs. When we took a break, I asked again if anyone’s access needs had changed. I could see that by me asking those questions that people felt cared for and nurtured doing movement that is pretty difficult.

What’s next for you?

I want to keep pumping out more accessible majorette dance. I want to tour a production and travel to teach people confidence and fun.

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To learn more about How We Move, visit www.embracedbody.com/hwm.

Follow Hector on Instagram @itshec.

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