Encountering disability through contemporary dance in Africa

在非洲通过当代舞遭遇残疾

• 批准号: AH/X009688/1
• 负责人: Yvette Hutchison
• 金额: $ 11.12万
• 依托单位: University of Warwick
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX009688%2F1
• 关键词: Encountering; disability; through; contemporary; dance

This project responds to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, set out in 2018 for 2030, which highlights the needs of specific minorities, including 'people with disabilities'; and insists on 'leaving no one behind' (Murphy, 2018:1). Yet, as we have seen with Covid-19, people with disabilities have been left behind, often to die. This has exacerbated issues of extreme inequality in Africa where other factors already marginalise disabled persons. It will scope ways in which integrated/ disabled dance, as an embodied form can both highlight and expose how citizenship in Africa has been and is being socially constructed and conceptualised through uninterrogated colonial frames in post-independence contexts. It aims to trace methodologies that can challenge and change these perceptions and thus the lived experiences of disabled people in Africa. This project is set out in two parts - the first is conceptual and methodological. We will begin by considering different approaches to disability from diverse perspectives, taking a critical disability studies approach that includes postcolonial and indigenous perspectives. Then we will ask how placing the physically, learning or neurologically differently-abled body in a dance context in Africa can disrupt the normative narratives regarding the unity, universality and usefulness of the conventional human body, particularly when the social body is articulated primarily through a capitalist frame of economic production, as was the case under settler/colonialism and apartheid, where peoples' worth is defined by their perceived ability to contribute to society, as opposed to needing support from it, physically, economically, etc. Dance is the ideal form through which to make visible and challenge these views on disability because 'dance favours the able working body, a body in control' (Loots); and when the disabled body enters this space of super-ability, its very presence challenges cultural representations of social, sexual and political norms.The second part of this study will work through practice by how specific integrated/ disabled dance companies and choreographers in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa are engaging citizenship in and thorough their work. We will also consider how these approaches compare to similar work being done in UK and Europe - Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy and Flanders, via the inaugural integrated dance festival at Sibikwa Arts in October 2022 in Johannesburg, where some of these companies are collaboratively creating new work with disabled and able-bodied dancers. We will explore their diverse integrated dance practice via performances, workshops and roundtable discussions to - trace the diversity of the sophisticated artistic practices of integrated dance work, - articulate how dance has a unique capacity both to illuminate the substantial flaws and exclusionary nature of modern concepts of citizenship, and offer a path to resolving these issues through this integrated form of dance that allows for adaptive choreographies,- consider how / whether integrated dance can foster a sense of home/ belonging (citizenship) for those that have been marginalised due to disability, and- and compare African and Europe/ global integrated dance practices.We will trace the specific choreographic methodologies these artists have developed to explore issues related to disability and citizenship in their contexts and facilitate the sharing of these practices via a 2-day online colloquium (year 1) and a Disability dance festival-colloquium of practice hosted by UKZN, where our collaborators will meet and share work face to face. This will enable us to decolonise approaches to dance, disability and citizenship and disseminate existing good practice more extensively. The outcomes will be a book and audio-visual material accessible via a project website that reflects the practitioners own work and experiences in their own words.

该项目响应了2018年制定的到2030年的联合国可持续发展目标，该目标强调了包括“残疾人”在内的特定少数群体的需求；并坚持“不让任何人掉队”（Murphy，2018：1）。然而，正如我们在新冠肺炎 (Covid-19) 疫情中所看到的那样，残疾人被抛在后面，常常导致死亡。这加剧了非洲的极端不平等问题，非洲的其他因素已经使残疾人边缘化。它将探讨综合/残疾人舞蹈作为一种体现形式的方式，既可以突出也可以揭示非洲公民身份在独立后背景下如何通过未经质疑的殖民框架进行社会建构和概念化。它的目的是追踪可以挑战和改变这些看法的方法，从而改变非洲残疾人的生活经历。该项目分为两部分——第一部分是概念部分和方法部分。我们将从不同角度考虑对残疾问题的不同方法，采取包括后殖民和土著观点的批判性残疾研究方法。然后我们会问，将身体、学习或神经能力不同的身体置于非洲的舞蹈背景中，如何会扰乱关于传统人体的统一性、普遍性和有用性的规范叙述，特别是当社会身体主要通过资本主义经济生产框架，就像在定居者/殖民主义和种族隔离下的情况一样，人们的价值是由他们对社会做出贡献的感知能力来定义的，而不是需要身体、经济等方面的支持。舞蹈是这是一种理想的形式，可以让人们看到并挑战这些关于残疾的观点，因为“舞蹈有利于有能力工作的身体，有控制力的身体”（Loots）；当残疾人的身体进入这个超能力的空间时，它的存在本身就挑战了社会、性和政治规范的文化表征。这项研究的第二部分将通过肯尼亚特定的综合/残疾人舞蹈公司和编舞者的实践来进行，尼日利亚、乌干达和南非正在将公民意识融入并深入开展工作。我们还将考虑如何将这些方法与英国和欧洲（爱尔兰、荷兰、意大利和佛兰德斯）通过 2022 年 10 月在约翰内斯堡 Sibikwa Arts 举办的首届综合舞蹈节进行的类似工作进行比较，其中一些公司正在合作创作与残疾和健全舞者合作的新作品。我们将通过表演、工作坊和圆桌讨论来探索他们多样化的综合舞蹈实践，以 - 追踪综合舞蹈作品复杂艺术实践的多样性， - 阐明舞蹈如何具有独特的能力，既能阐明现代概念的实质性缺陷和排他性公民意识，并通过这种允许适应性编排的综合舞蹈形式提供解决这些问题的途径，考虑综合舞蹈如何/是否可以为那些因残疾而被边缘化的人培养家庭感/归属感（公民身份） ， 和-并比较非洲和欧洲/全球综合舞蹈实践。我们将追踪这些艺术家开发的具体编舞方法，以探索其背景下与残疾和公民身份相关的问题，并通过为期 2 天的在线研讨会（第一年）促进这些实践的分享）以及由 UKZN 主办的残疾人舞蹈节实践研讨会，我们的合作者将在会上面对面交流并分享工作成果。这将使我们能够在舞蹈、残疾和公民意识方面实现去殖民化，并更广泛地传播现有的良好实践。成果将是一本书籍和视听材料，可通过项目网站访问，用自己的语言反映从业者自己的工作和经验。