Object.Mirror.Tempo

This article is an exploration using practice-based research in which I investigated a question: How can I, as a dance practitioner and facilitator, collaborate with a differently abled person on compositional work?

I explored how to be open to various ways of communicating and collaborating, not only as verbally, but also by letting disabled bodies and minds’ expertise communicate in their own ways to allow for questioning and challenging normative perspectives.

This research was conducted in Denmark at the participants’ group residence. The institutional context was logistically convenient and served as familiar surroundings for the participants. It also was a foundation on which to explore dance research within other institutional spaces. I collaborated with three participants with disabilities in one-on-one sessions, creating a shared physical practice. Together with each participant, I was curious about finding our common interests within the field of dance, and how we could explore them with our individualised bodily expertise. It later became:

The Object practice

The Mirror practice

The Tempo practice

By proposing a quadruple loop structure as the methodological framework, I discuss the findings while taking a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. The empirical data were collected through video documentation of the sessions, observations and interviews. The four central topics of this shared experience entailed an examination and discussion of how to comprehend education, uncovering the validity of bodily feedback, exploring Crip time as a tool to question a normative understanding of time, and acknowledging the importance of showing. To get the full experience while reading this article, the reader is asked to ensure Internet access is available so that they can shift back and forth between the text and video excerpts.