Wheel joy
July 27, 2020 11:14 AM Subscribe
An access ramp as an artistic object. In 2004, then medieval studies scholar Alice Sheppard saw disabled dancer Homer Avila (2002 performance) take the stage. That performance and his dare that she take a dance class led to her current life as a choreographer and artistic director of Kinetic Light production company. Her dance piece DESCENT imagines a queer love affair between Andromeda and Venus.
From the Dance Magazine feature (main link). When challenged by some of their blind audience members to think beyond current practice in access for nonvisual audience members, the team for DESCENT began developing an app called Audimance. It translates movement into a sonic experience with multiple content streams, including poetry and sonic renderings of dance alongside traditional audio description.
In a 2019 talk for arts funder Creative Capital, Sheppard describes this radical experiment in aesthetic accessibility and audience design.
From the Dance Magazine feature (main link). When challenged by some of their blind audience members to think beyond current practice in access for nonvisual audience members, the team for DESCENT began developing an app called Audimance. It translates movement into a sonic experience with multiple content streams, including poetry and sonic renderings of dance alongside traditional audio description.
In a 2019 talk for arts funder Creative Capital, Sheppard describes this radical experiment in aesthetic accessibility and audience design.
Avila's performance blew me away. Sad to realize he died two years later.
posted by leslies at 6:11 AM on July 28, 2020
posted by leslies at 6:11 AM on July 28, 2020
You can probably imagine my joy when I, a wheelchair user, read this.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:09 PM on August 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by DrAstroZoom at 2:09 PM on August 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
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Really fun ideas, perhaps inappropriate, but I want a wheelchair. Dancechair.
She does highlight a dance paradox most clearly seen with the amazing set for the wheelchairs. It needs space, space to set up and practice and create. Many (grr most) things like this happen in new york where space is a total luxury, in short supply and then at a premium. But that's where the dancers and other creators are able to congregate.
Dance more than most arts calls for in person presentation. Although reading comments about the Hamilton video many others benefit. Oh my what will survive this season of isolation. Schools, whew, big issue, when will there be fun hot sweaty dance parties with all smushed together in a swirling mass of moving joy......
posted by sammyo at 12:06 PM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]