The Physically Disabled Dancer and the Affirmative Model of Disability (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)

This volume investigates the contributions and achievements of the physically disabled dancer while challenging and recognizing the inherent inequities in the field of integrated dance in the UK which currently places greater emphasis on the learning-disabled performer. This is the first book ever written by a physically disabled dancer on the subject of physically disabled dancers.Inherent in this examination is the model of examining disability that is most closely associated with the disability arts movement which is the ‘affirmative model of disability’.This model is defined as an approach to disability in which the disabled person is neither an object of medical care nor a victim of social indifference but a self-respecting, autonomous individual in which their disability is a positive and affirming aspect of their self-identity.This book, based on interviews with physically disabled dancers, choreographers, academics and arts producers all in a UK context, combines a wide range o