Making an Entrance: Theory and Practice for Disabled and Non-Disabled Dancers

278 Pages·2001·16.495 MB·English

by  Adam Benjamin

Making an Entrance
Making an Entrance is the first practical introduction to the teaching of dance with
disabled and non-disabled students as equal contributors. This clearly written, thought
provoking, and hugely enjoyable manual is essential reading for all those addressing
difference through the art of dance.
Benjamin takes Improvisation as his central focus and asks what it has to offer as
an art form and how it can be better used to meet the changing needs within dance
education and professional performance. He considers the history and place of inte
gration in dance, and its role in an all too disintegrated society.
The book includes over fifty exercises and improvisations designed to stimulate and
challenge students at all levels of dance. It also highlights the practicalities of setting
up workshops, covering issues as diverse as class size, the safety aspects of wheelchairs
and the accessibility of dance spaces.
Adam Benjamin is one of the leading practitioners in his field. He is founder and former
Artistic Director of Cando Co Dance Company and has pioneered work in South Africa,
Ethiopia, Israel, Japan and throughout Europe.
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Making an Entrance
Theory and practice for disabled and
non-disabled dancers
Adam Benjamin
London and New York
First published 2002
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Transferred to Digital Printing 2007
© 2002 Adam Benjamin
Typeset in Sabon by
Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Benjamin, Adam, 1958-
Making an entrance: theory and practice for disabled and
non-disabled dancers/Adam Benjamin.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-25143-5 {alk. paper)-ISBN 0-415-25144-3
(pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Dance. 2. Handicapped dancers. 3. Dance-Social aspects.
I. Title.
GV1799.2 .B47 2001
793.3'087-dc21 2001041226
ISBN 0-415-25144-3 (pbk)
0-415-25143-5 (hbk)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality
of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in
the original may be apparent
In memory of Lea Parkinson
'The only inexplicable thing about life is that it is inexplicable.'
(After Albert Einstein)
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Contents
List of figures Xlll
Foreword xv
Preface XVll
Acknowledgements XXI
PART I
Introduction 1
1 Introduction: life after Stages 3
2 Improvisation - access - training - touching on a definition 7
3 A little on language, disability, integration and inclusivity 12
4 Disability-specific groups and the Simpson Board 19
5 A serious dislocation 23
The god, the bad and the ugly: three approaches to dance in
one mythical family 23
Apollo's mission: the elevation and inaccessibility of dance 24
Louis XIV: the king who stole space to make steps 25
Darwin, eugenics and state control 26
'Some of the people' v. 'All of the people'; Hitler v. F. D. Roosevelt 28
Natura non facit saltum: leaps of the imagination - Cunningham
and Keller 29
Natura facit saltum: nature dances, and so do disabled people;
contact improvisation and developments in America 30
A dance whose time had come: disabled people make an
entrance 32
X marks the spot: X.24 to X6 - contemporary and new dance
initiatives in the UK 36
The hobbling dance 40
viii Contents
6 'Just' moving: ethics, integration and the discipline of
improvisation 43
7 The great mistake: response-ability and feedback 49
8 Tension seekers: a poetlhunter's guide to improvisation 52
9 Tension as a guide to feedback 55
10 Demons and dragons: some thoughts on becoming blocked
in improvisation 59
11 Is it therapy? 62
Tears and fears 65
12 Special schools, special students and integrated practice 67
Learning with difficulty 68
When to say 'no' 68
13 Lost narrative 71
14 Access v. excellence 73
Setting up 73
An integrated group does not handicap its non-disabled
dancers 74
Selection criteria 75
PART II
Exercises and Improvisations 77
15 Working against resistance: an introduction to the improvisations
and exercises. 79
16 An unruly location 82
Ground rules in the studio 82
The dance space 86
Wheelchairs: safety and etiquette 87
Hard metal, soft bodies: avoiding injury 89
Helping yourself: teachers' supports 91
17 Introductory work 93
1 Stretching a point 94
2 Flock: in search of a 'common sense' 97
Breath, proximity and distance 100
3 Spirit level 1 01
4 Breathing Space 102
Contents IX
5 Seaweed exercise 104
6 Linear pathways exercise 106
7 Receiving: stopped in your tracks 110
8 Open hand 112
18 Listening through touch 115
9 Leading and following 115
10 Interloper: introducing the third person 125
11 Departures 127
12 Freewheeling 127
13 The art of stealing 130
14 Cascade 132
15 Aerial pathways 135
19 Making an entrance in time and space 137
16 Crossing the line: 'inscaping' not escaping 139
Lessons in non-competition: hubris and nemesis 142
17 Crossing the line on time 142
Arch Enemies and rites of passage 143
18 Making an entrance: a development of crossing the line 144
19 Entrance/exit 145
20 Encounters 146
21 Vocal scores 147
20 Con-temp-Iation: thinking about space, time and centre 150
A meditation in situ 150
What is the point of balance? 152
22 Pivot: an introduction to plateau 153
23 Plateau: A practical exploration 153
24 Balancing the picture 154
Ordering space 155
25 Playing for space 156
26 Resting is dancing 157
27 Free improvisation in the studio 159
28 Improvisations and the environment 159
21 Graceful ways, or seaching for clews 163
29 Traverse: travelling in a group 164
30 Narrative traverse 167
31 Narrative, musical, traverse 168
32 The far side 168
33 Amoeba, and the single-cell solo 170