ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses solo choreographic works I have developed by exploring my inability to stay in the sitting position, which has started after a medical mistake in 2006. Movement analysis of different works created along several years demonstrates how disability actually fosters somatic learning, interaction, and transformation at different levels. In contemporary societies, the emphasis on excessive mobility paradoxically associated to disciplined bodies in mandatory sitting has produced a voluntarily disabled species. On the other hand, the socially ignored and rejected qualities of disability per se stretch the borders of normative spaces, creating an accessibility based on ‘sensory attunement’ and difference which challenges socially imposed hegemonic models. Creative processes based on ‘somatic attunement’ foster the interplay between invisible disability and visible movement with/in the environment, dismantling expectations of a dancer’s ideal body. Somatic approaches used in this research include Laban/Bartenieff Movement System and Authentic Movement.
