Inclusive Dance : The Story of Touchdown Dance by Katy Dymoke

Inclusive Dance is an ethnography of disability?arts, and historiographic overview of the?1980s when many new disability arts?groups came to fruition. Touchdown Dance?was the research 'ambition' of dancer Steve?Paxton and theatre maker and psychotherapist Anne Kilcoyne, involving visually impaired and sighted?adults in Contact Improvisation - a dyadic?movement form requiring physical?contact. Katy Dymoke took over Touchdown Dance?in 1994 and refers here to archives, accounts?and personal experience to share the?learning that has been shared over the?years to today. Touch and movement are?vital for accessibility and inclusion and?modality specific approaches were?devised to ensure a democratic process?towards the inclusion of visually impaired?people in a pro-touch activity. The continuum of movement based methods?fills the gaps in polarities of visual and?nonvisual and a two-way membrane?interlinks all the participants in a body?focused learning experience. The mutable?membrane becomes a heuristic device for?the relational realm, a locus for debate,?for change. Touch deprivation, exclusion?and inequality are the consequence of an?inaccessible visually dominant society. Three point of view chapters - from two visually impaired and one sighted company dancer - further describe the performance work,?revealing how lives are changed and why sociocultural?inclusion is imperative. ?
Binding: Paperback / softback