This Body's Heart: Leveraging Dance Processes for Cultural Liberation

Abstract

"What does it mean to be young and physically disabled?" that is the question This Body's Heart, a six piece contemporary dance production first set out to answer. A larger question was answered, however, within the opportunity to apply principles of Disability Justice to the theatrical process. In so doing, a team of college students of majority marginalized identities, demonstrated that theatrical processes- and by extension all processes- should not jeopardize individual well-being to take place on time and with success. Using This Body's Heart's position within Purchase College, SUNY as a case study, Rio-Glick breaks down the ways in which institutional oppression and ableist standards of normalcy are perpetuated, and provides ways to combat said oppression by applying Disability Justice theory to actively build and practice deliberate, non-hierarchical creative processes.