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. Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance asks: What if the dance world reflected that statistic?

Image description: The cover of “Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance” against a wood table

Breadth of Bodies: Discussing Disability in Dance 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 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.

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Details: Authored by Emmaly Wiederholt and Silva Laukkanen, illustrations by Liz Brent-Maldonado, design by Christelle Dreyer, edited by Donne Lewis and April Adams, audiobook narrated by Sami Kekäläinen

The dancers interviewed:

Redouan “Redo” Ait Chitt: “I Want to Inspire People with Good Dance”

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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Hai Cohen: “I Would Like to See Good Dance, Period”

Sidiki Conde: “Dance Is About Happiness”

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Hanna Cormick: “Not What My Body Does, But What My Body Is”

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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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Nastija Fijolič: “Judge Me as A Dancer, Not as A Wheelchair Dancer”

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

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Toby MacNutt: “It’s Both And”

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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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