Exploring Intersectionality Through Dance

An Interview with Alice Sheppard BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT; PHOTOS BY ROBBIE SWEENEY Alice Sheppard is a dancer and choreographer who splits her time between San Francisco, New York and the United Kingdom. Her work is most notable for exploring the intersections between disability, race, gender and sexuality. Her newest work, […]

February 16, 2017  |  Read Article

One Man’s Road to Calling Himself a Dancer

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT I met Eugene Williams in a contact improvisation jam and, after several conversations, came to learn he was a wealth of stories and information. He has a unique outlook on the dance world, both because of his disability (Eugene rides in a wheelchair) and because he found […]

January 30, 2017  |  Read Article

Communicating More Than Movement: An Interview with Emery Blackwell

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT; PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREGORY BARTNING Most of us have a narrow definition of what it means to have a disability; it’s a label often imposed from the outside in. Emery has cerebral palsy and, though he is commonly labeled “disabled,” I have never met a dancer with a […]

November 7, 2016  |  Read Article

The Body You Dance: An Interview with Alito Alessi

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT; PHOTOGRAPHS BY GREGORY BARTNING Alito spoke and danced like wind. I sense the wind’s power in what I see moved by it; I feel its scope in its universal affect; I discover its dimension in its varying layers. To meet Alito is to understand the definition of […]

October 26, 2016  |  Read Article

Bridging Art and Disability

BY EMMALY WIEDERHOLT Ezzell Floraniña began The Rainbow Players – a group comprised of people with varying levels of disability labels – in 1999 in Western Massachusetts. Ezzell integrates Theater of the Oppressed, dance, music and visual art as a way for The Rainbow Players to find their creative voice. […]

March 24, 2016  |  Read Article