ABSTRACT
Homer David Avila is dead. Homer was a strong dancer who danced with the Alvin Ailey Company and many other premier US dance companies. He developed cancer, and one of his legs had to be amputated to save his life. Homer danced on; he connected with the vibrant disability dance scene, got to know many of the people involved in it, and danced with them. He merged his strong technique background with the kind of sensibilities towards difference that characterise disability art, and his performances were wide and generous. He danced and danced, right up to his death, keeping in movement and keeping that movement off-balance. He was reaching for and refining his movement vocabulary, adapting it to his changing body and his changing outlook on what bodies do. This chapter honours Homer, disperses him, and coalesces him, making use of his dance’s energy to undo the certainty of history, the fixing of identity, to move onwards dancerly.
