Mixed-Ability Performers Leave Profound Impact on UT Dancers

Gliding across the floor in Reeves Theatre, the ballroom dancers exhibit the kind of grace one would expect from world and European champions. What might have been a surprise was the addition of a wheelchair — Hanna Harchakova and Ihar Kisialiou, of Belarus, are champions in wheelchair ballroom dance.

Minutes later, Tali Wertheim is bending around Hai Cohen, both of Israel, and his wheelchair, their contact improvisation piece keeping the rapt attention of the UT audience. After, a student asked what their piece meant. Cohen turned the question back, asking her what she saw.

“Great love.”

The performance Oct. 19 was part of a UT Honors Symposium, which included a presentation followed by a master class.

“I think it just challenges us as a society to think about life and dance and performance in new ways and to let go of our preconceptions of how it’s supposed to be,” said Susan Taylor Lennon, chair of the Department of Speech, Theatre and Dance. “It’s a relatively new field actually, mixed abilities dance, and I hope people see that every body can be at this table, every body has a place in the studio.”

The artists were in town for the second annual conference of A New Definition of Dance, which is co-sponsored by the University of South Florida and Very Special Arts of Florida, and coordinated by Merry Lynn Morris, who used to teach at UT.

People associate wheelchairs, canes and other assistive devices with the medical world.

“Dance flips that,” said Morris. In mixed-ability dancing, they think about the movement possibilities that become available because of those devices. They want people to move away from considering them only in the medical realm, and see the devices as ways of expressing emotion and creativity, too.

“It becomes only about people interacting and about expressing thoughts, emotions and ideas,” Morris said. “We find really different explorations we wouldn’t have if not for the devices.”

Savannah Porch ’17 choreographs and performs for the students at Pyramid, best known for the arts program it offers to adults with a wide range of abilities. Porch said she didn’t think it was any more challenging to choreograph for mixed-ability dancers.

“There's a lot of trial and error in any creative process. If a dancer is in a wheelchair or an electric wheelchair, I treat it more like a prop in the performance,” said Porch, of Winter Park, FL. “For example, with either chair, I can stand on the back of it in arabesque while they spin me around, and it creates a stunning image. You have to look at what ways their abilities can aid the piece, not focus on what they are not able to do.”

Porch was in attendance Wednesday night and got chills, as she does whenever she watches mixed-ability performances.

“I’m not sure exactly what it is, but these performances really touch me,” said Porch, an applied dance major. “I love their willingness and bravery to share their craft. I find it wonderful that instead of being sad that they aren't able bodied, they found a way to utilize and focus on all of the capabilities they do have.”

Porch wasn’t aware of this dance field until she came to UT. She took a class field trip to Pyramid and was hooked, volunteering there every week by herself dancing, teaching and choreographing with the students.

“It's the most amazing feeling to walk into a room and have multiple people's eyes light up when they see you,” said Porch. “I sadly believe many people are scared of this population, because they've never had much interaction with them before or they don't know how they will act. I want to take down that fear. They are people. They are humans with feelings just like everyone else. They also want to dance and have fun like everyone else.”

There is a free public performance on Friday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at USF Theatre I. Reservations are required.

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