dance and disability culture

Dance is an art form centered on coordinated movement. The socially held ideal of graceful movement in dance suggests that a physically disabled person may be unable to engage in this form of movement, but dance is a form of free expression and there is no right or wrong way to do it. At Axis Dance workshops, disabled individuals are able to use their bodies to perform skillful dances. What makes the studio truly unique is its engagement of both so called “able bodied” as well as disabled individuals. This integration of the disability community helps inspire an art form that shows that a person is not limited by their disability or disease. The workshops focus on “bodily being” such that dancers are allowed to explore their talents as well as their limitations and in doing so they can assist one another to improve their art. Though each dancer is an equal in the space, in society, there is an exclusionary line that is drawn that excludes disabled individuals from mainstream society. These exclusionary attitudes generate disability culture. I feel that by casting aside individuals for a shared reason creates a culture based upon a shared characteristic and in this case a shared goal to gain societal access. These underlying attitudes and behaviors are shared by disabled people as a result of shared experiences, which allows them to create a unifying culture as well as sub cultures for different types of disabilities.