On her work at Tramway’s Unlimited Festival
The Way You Look (at me) Tonight brings me back together with Jess Curtis, the US choreographer and performer who really kindled my fascination for working in movement. A lot of my early introduction to dance with Jess was really rooted in proprioception and Contact Improvisation and really opened up an entirely new way of thinking about, feeling and understanding my body that led, through other artists such as Bill Shannon, into an embracing and ownership of the difference and potential of being a disabled body and artist. And so this work feels like a really beautiful reunion of Jess and I that is in one way coming back to a familiar place, but yet meeting anew 12 years later with older bodies and different lived experiences.
The idea of perception had fascinated us both in different ways - for myself in recognising that the lived experience of disability literally influenced how I moved through the world, the choices I make and my relationship to space and time, and in turn how I myself am perceived in the world. So it has been incredibly exciting to look at how these ideas intersect with Alva’s (Dr Alva Noe – our collaborator and philosopher of perception) theories of “enacted perception” which argue that perception happens in the whole body not just the brain, and is enacted by our capacities to move and engage with the world. The combination also of my desire that my work (and the ethos of Unlimited commissions) be as accessible as possible, alongside the thinking of where choreography, philosophy and perception intersect presented an incredibly rich and fertile ground for investigation and lent further evidence to the idea that making “accessible” art actually can be a source of enormous creativity rather than needing to be a “bolt-on”. The richness of the conversations on this project have really been mind-blowing, around philosophy, choreography, gender, disability, collaboration and perhaps unexpectedly, love.
On her practice or experience as an artist working in a ‘disability-led’ context
I think something that is perhaps not realised or appreciated by those who are not considered to be within “marginalised” identities is the sense of responsibility that artists like myself take on - mostly through choice but not always - and how exhausting at times that can be. I'm not convinced that many white male normative-bodied choreographers are expected to be responsible for representing all white male normative-bodied choreographers, or for having the answer to how to develop more white male normative-bodied choreographers, or are expected to advocate for, articulate the situation of, or whenever they work abroad have to consider how they can contribute to the development of local white male normative-bodied choreographers, nor examine/check all their press, marketing social media etc to ensure that it is not in any way perpetuating negative stereotypes of white male normative-bodied choreographers….?
I certainly do this with regard to disability because I want to, it is my means of trying to create change in the world…but I feel at times those layers of privilege must surely allow those individuals a bit more free time…! Or at least allows them to talk about the art more…?
I will say that am fortunate with this collaboration in Jess to be working with a white male normative-bodied choreographer (who is now however dealing with a body that no longer does what it used to) who is pretty aware of his layers of privilege and makes real, heartfelt effort to address any imbalances either of us perceive. But it has been interesting I think for him to note – and has prompted some very rich conversations - this whole other level of responsibility I feel I carry into the project, that even the simple act of picking the promo image for the show carries a whole other layer of scrutiny for me that was unanticipated for him.
I unquestionably have my own levels of privilege and the unpacking of these is a lifetime task, as is my need to widen my vocabulary to find less binary ways of referring to people that undermine the whole embracing of intersectionality that I am growing to value so much and is threaded through our piece. The tiredness however that I alluded to earlier, is not meant as a complaint therefore, but more about casting light on a perhaps unacknowledged element of identifying as a disabled artist, and the unstable relationship it can create within of both wanting to take on responsibility for supporting the progress of other disabled people but of also questioning when that perpetuates ideas that I am “representing” disabled people.
On the theme of intersectionality
I think what's been very interesting in the creation of a work looking at perception is the importance of intersectionality, that so many factors of our lived experience, gender, ethnicity, disability, physicality, different sensory modes, age, sexuality, “nationality”, language, “class”, height…and so on and so on, shape how we navigate the world, literally and socially, and that in everyone these aspects meet at different places, (which changes over our lifetimes) but are still all held by our bodies, and the importance of recognising that many of these things are not fixed but influenced by each other.
Claire Cunningham's performance of The Way You Look (At Me) Tonight will be on at Tramway's Unlimited Festival on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 September 2016 at 8:30pm. Claire will also join us in the What? space on Saturday 17 September to chat about the theme of commitment from around 5pm.