defining dance

what is dance?

Dance is very broadly defined. Basically, dance is moving your body to rhythms (usually music). When most people think of dance, they think of styles of dance like ballet or jazz done in a dance studio. They also usually think of dance that uses your whole body. Maybe they think of graceful, pretty movements or movements that are hard for most people to do. Sometimes people use these ideas about dance to argue that only nondisabled people can dance. However, dance does not need to look a certain way to be dancing. It does not need to be "pretty" or be of a certain style/genre. You also don't need to use your full body to dance. A backflip is a movement but so is blinking. One kind of movement is not better than another.

Disabled dancers can use dance to create disability culture. Petra Kuppers describes a physically integrated dance practice as:

"a laboratory of disability culture. We are in an environment where many disabled people come together and operate on their own terms, in conversation with non-disabled spaces, ideas, values, and concerns that surround us" (Kuppers, 2011, p. 2).

Dance can be a way for people to connect with one another. Dance can also be a way for people to better understand their body: how it senses the world around them, how it feels, and how it likes to move. Dance can help people express themselves, tell stories, and call for change.

what is community dance/ performance?

I grew up taking traditional studio dance classes. The focus in these kinds of classes is often on getting the moves right. In these more traditional classes, there is a set, correct way of doing things. Your goal is to replicate the teacher's movements. However, Maschak (2017) says that community dance "is not about learning set steps to music. Rather, it encourages participation and collaboration in a creative process of making dance, connecting to others, developing authentic movement, learning new things, and enhancing one’s sense of greater community." Community dance happens when a community comes together to create movement and form a stronger sense of connection to one another. The movement created in community dance might not follow an existing technique or genre like ballet. Instead, all types of movement are honored. Community dance is a space for all kinds of embodiment, including disability. There is also a shift in the traditional Western power dynamics. Instead of there being a single expert leading a group of students, everyone contributes to the creation of dance.

where can dance happen?

Dance often happens in dance studios and on stages. However it is not limited to those spaces. Dance can happen in parks, in a person's home, on the sidewalk. Anywhere you can think of (and even ones you can't).

Disabled dancers Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson dance on parking ramps and metal railings in the short film "Revel in Your Body." Sheppard has found disabled movement in even "stranger" places where nobody thought a wheelchair would/could be. For example in a hammock, in a bathtub, and on a trampoline.

GIF of clips from the "Revel in Your Body" dance short film. In the first two clips, wheelchair dancers rise and fall through the air in slow motion. There is a bright blue sky in the background. In the next clip, a number of wheelchair dancers hold onto a metal railing on a set of stairs outside. The dancers are flipping over the railing. In the last clip, the text "REVEL IN YOUR BODY" cuts out a black background. Through the letters is the parking rooftop where the short film was filmed.

Every space/place is different. This means that each place provides different possibilities for how a dancer can interact with that space. Places have different histories and different architectures. Places hold different meanings depending on who you are. Dancing in your bedroom is different from dancing on a stage in a city you have never been to before. How it feels to dance in a place, the kinds of movement the space allows for, and what meaning the place to you will vary. Site-specific performance recognizes that and is developed in relationship with a chosen site/place. Site-specific dance takes performance out of traditional Western spaces like theaters. This allows dancers to explore what it means to dance and be in a wider range of places. Petra Kuppers often engages in site-specific dance alone or in community with other dancers. Below is a picture from a site-specific performance that she did in rural Michigan after an economic collapse. There, Kuppers (2017) and her partner Stephanie Heit explored her relationships with the "ruins" left from environmental change, such as bits of bone and pieces of wood in the sand. She also explored what it means to dance in and embody the sounds, textures, and movement of the environment. How can dancing or performing in a place help us better understand our relationship with it?

Image of Petra Kuppers sitting on the swings on Frankfurt Beach. It is mid-winter, and she is performing a five-minute arial dance, playing with the push and pull of gravity. She is wearing a maroon hat, sweater, and boots. She is also wearing glasses, a green winter coat and light blue jeans. She is smiling at the camera. The photo was taken by Stephanie Heit.

Adapted from "Dancing Material History: Site-Specific Performance in Michigan" by P. Kuppers, 2017, The Drama Review, 61(3), p. 134.

Petra Kuppers sitting on the swings on Frankfurt Beach. It is mid-winter, and she is performing a five-minute arial dance, playing with the push and pull of gravity. She is wearing a maroon hat, sweater, and boots. She is also wearing glasses, a green winter coat and light blue jeans. She is smiling at the camera. The photo was taken by Stephanie Heit.