G
THEATER LOOK-IN
Join company members from the play “Thurgood” at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday at 5 p.m. for a discussion and Q&A.
www.kennedy-center.org. $12.
OnStage
VSA FEST HIGHLIGHTS
“What is disability?”
Last fall, VSA, the international
organization on arts and disability once known as Very Special Arts, invited artists around the world to answer that question. More than 1,200 responses came in from
more than 50 countries and in all creative forms: painting, drawing, collage, fabric art, poetry, musical composition. The responses will be on display next week in the Kennedy Center Hall of States as part of the week-long International VSA Festival, programming that explores the nature and creativity of what it means to be disabled — and even whether “disabled” is the appropriate term. “The diversity within disability is
amazing,” says VSA President Soula Antoniou. “Internationally there are 650 million people with disabilities around the world.... When you try to contextualize it in terms of physical disabilities, cognitive disabilities, mental-health issues, you really gain a sense of the enormity and complexity of disability.”
VSA aims to erase labels — disabled, special, challenged, handicapped — to focus on talent, artistry and inclusiveness. And the festival’s more than 50 performances and exhibits, Antoniou says, offer something for everyone. Highlights include:
Sunday at 7:30 p.m., Kennedy Center
Concert Hall. The festival’s opening program features actress Marlee Matlin, singer Patti LaBelle and the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe.
TRIB LAPRADE
Sonsheree Giles and Rodney Bell are part of the Axis Dance Company, which performs June 11-12 in the International VSA Festival.
Artistry, not therapy
by Lisa Traiger
Choreographer David Dorfman struggled as much with words as with movement in his newest work, “Light Shelter,” a collabo- ration with Axis Dance Company’s eight dancers, four of whom use wheelchairs or have prosthetic limbs. “As familiar as I am working with all kinds of populations,” Dorfman says, in his early work with the company, “even the ter- minology was fraught. How would we refer to each other?” “I just tiptoed around what to
say,” admits Dorfman, 54, “but then we talked about it and came up with our own language: peds and treads.” Peds referred to dancers moving on two feet, while treads meant those in wheelchairs. “Light Shelter” is one of the dance per- formances in the upcoming International VSA Festival, which explores the culture and artistry of disability. The week-long
A. VINCENT SCARANO
Choreographer David Dorfman.
event begins Sunday in venues across the area, with “Light Shelter” having its Wash- ington premiere June 11 and 12 at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. “We don’t consider ourselves a disabled dance company,” says Judith Smith, Axis co- founder and artistic director. The Califor- nia-based company, which has collaborated with some of con- temporary dance’s most cel- ebrated artists — Bill T. Jones, Joe Goode, Margaret Jenkins, Stephen Petronio and Meredith Monk among them — has a rep- ertory of cutting-edge choreog- raphy, Smith says. “We basically refer to our- selves as a contemporary dance company that does physically integrated work, meaning we have dancers with and without disabilities,” says Smith, 50, who has been in a wheelchair since a car acci- dent at age 17. “I spent several years sitting very still be- cause I just really didn’t know what to do in my body,” says Smith, who excelled at com-
petitive horseback riding before her acci- dent. But then she discovered dance through an improvisation movement ex- perience, and a new world opened up. For Smith and her other “treads” danc- ers, their work is not dance therapy. “It’s about artistry,” she notes. For his part, Dorf- man, who directs his own company in New York, has discovered something else while working with the Axis dancers, as well as with disabled community members. “I see bravery and risk-taking, whether
they’re throwing themselves along a mov- ing wheel, or allowing themselves to be lift- ed when they’re in a chair, throwing their chair up in the air, or taking a dive to the ground,” he says. “It’s all quite stamina- oriented.”
weekend@washpost.com
Traiger is a freelance writer.
Axis Dance Company
Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. 202-399-7993.
www.atlasarts.org. June 11-12. $8-$22.
CHINA DISABLED PEOPLE’S PERFORMING ART TROUPE
The China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe opens the VSA festival.
Monday at 6 p.m., Kennedy Center
Millennium Stage. The members of Australia’s Rudely Interrupted indie-rock band have a range of physical and intellectual disabilities.
Wednesday at 8:30 p.m., DC Improv. Josh
Blue has cerebral palsy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t laugh about it. The “Last Comic Standing” winner is joined by Brett Leake and Kathy Buckley. Age 18 and older.
Thursday at 10:15 and 11:30 a.m.,
Smithsonian Discovery Theater. Uganda Deaf Silent Theatre’s “The Magic Seeds,” a folk tale that is perfect for families.
Sunday through June 20, Kennedy Center.
Artist Dale Chihuly will fill the center’s front reflecting pool with spears of glass, while other artwork takes over the halls and walls.
For a complete schedule, visit www.vsarts. org.
—Lisa Traiger
19
THE WASHINGTON POST • FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2010
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