ACESSEBLE EDUCATION: AESTHETIC, BODY AND DESABILITY

Abstract

This paper introduces dance teachers to the social model of disability, and discusses the implications of this conception of disability for the teaching of dance literacy, dance appreciation, and choreography. The relationship between the disabled ballet dancer and the concept of ballet’s dancerly body is analysed as a way to challenge dance students’ understanding of the body. The use of frames and other techniques of dancetheatre are discussed through the performance work of professional and community dance groups with and by disabled people. The core thesis of this paper is that an accessible dance culture needs not only accessible techniques, work spaces, training facilities and stages, but also wider educational work on the level of dance literacy; our ability to read dance and appreciate its manipulation of bodies, spaces and time.