With a combination of visible and invisible disabilities, the artists and performers reinterpret Chair Dancing, challenging perceptions that everyone should move and look the same way.
The DaDaFest 2020 event is free and held online, 29 November, 5pm. To watch see here.
The process reveals how each individual’s social reality causes them to move in their own unique ways, directing their own bodies in space.
Inspired by Jodi Stolove’s YouTube video ‘Life’s A Celebration’, artist Nicola Smith and her collaborators break down the uniformity of the well-rehearsed participants precisely following verbal instructions to examine the ways that conditions and disabilities impact on a person’s mobility, or how they interpret information.
Although attempting inspiration from this traditionally framed video regime, each performer’s contribution is conditioned by their own interpretation and disability.
Smith’s ADHD impacts on her ability to follow verbal instructions, and she’ll be working with wheelchair performers. Kevin French who works across choreography, dance and live art, Monique Jarrette who is a model, public figure, and professional ballroom chair dancer, and Adele Fowles (Another Adele), a neurodivergent artist and former chair dancing teacher.