ABSTRACT
Dancers whose bodies, sensorimotor systems, minds, and biographies are shaped by their specific bodily and neurocognitive conditions related to a disability, open new insights into processes of interaction and communication. The ways in which they communicate and solve complex tasks in everyday life and even more in dance, shed new light on the adaptive capacities of the human neurocognitive system. Dancers with special physical and cognitive conditions can be regarded as experts in their own right: the absence or reduced functionality of a limb or of a sensory modality, as well as a special cognitive condition, might afford new solutions for given tasks and novel modes of interaction and communication. In mixed-abled dance, communication can be challenged, but also enriched by the fact that members might differ strongly in the way they move, act, perceive, think, feel, communicate, and understand the world.
Research studies show that the modification of methods in regard to particular requirements, plays a crucial role in the teaching process. Our chapter enters the debate at this point and takes its findings from CREABILITY, an ongoing international, interdisciplinary, and participatory research project. In this chapter, we give insight into the creation process of the accessible methods, and present initial proposals resulting from the participatory research within the artistic laboratory.
