“I don’t think there’s much difference between dance and everyday movement except for intent,” says dancer Robby Lee Williams. “Are you feeling out some rhythm, some music in your head? Or adding different qualities if you have an emotion?” A conversation with Sarah Najera, artistic director of Oak Park integrated dance company MOMENTA, sparked his recent exploration. “We were talking about how putting your pants on could be a dance movement. For example, you’re standing up straight, you need to grab your pants off the floor and kick one leg through. If you’re standing you usually kick straight down. But you have a lot of options: you could kick at a low angle, high, out to the side. The movements translate; it just depends on what you want to do with them. I was like, ‘Oh yeah! That could extend to everything else.’”
“The idea of the festival was to bring more diverse bodies into dance, to highlight and encourage the training that is happening in Chicago, and to be a networking opportunity for people who are doing this work to connect and spark new ideas,” says Goodman. Crucial to this work is the power of dance to inspire. During the first festival, MOMENTA dancer and CounterBalance founder Ginger Lane led a choreography workshop for anyone who wanted to join, to create a new work performed in the fall concert called Community Piece. An annual showcase of films and performances also highlights possibility and creativity. “At the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, they work all the time with people with disabilities. They’re trying to help them survive. They had never seen disabled bodies in excellence. We were showing dance videos all day, including one from [Portland, Oregon multidisciplinary performance company] Wobbly Dance. They said, ‘We’re just trying to get people up the steps, and here you have them climbing walls!’”
“One stereotype that [disabled dancer and choreographer] Alice Sheppard has talked about breaking is that disabled bodies are always in crisis. Disabled bodies are not always in crisis,” says Goodman. “Humans have so much richness and depth, and dance is the perfect vehicle for describing the human condition.” v
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