The Beauty in Every Body
From “8 Things to Do This Weekend” By Brian Schaefer of The New York Times
When the dancer and choreographer Alice Sheppard darts down a sidewalk in her wheelchair, she doesn’t slow down or apologize. “Speed is just part of my personality,” she says in “Kinetic Light: Beyond the Stage.” The 20-minute video combines the documentary, “Making Where Good Souls Fear,” which features Sheppard as she moves intrepidly through space, with “Wisps, the Ground Sighs,” a dreamlike juxtaposition of dancers outdoors.
This presentation is part of ADA in the Arts, Lincoln Center’s robust program of offerings on its website and YouTube channel that commemorates the Americans With Disabilities Act, signed into law 30 years ago on Sunday. In addition to “Kinetic Light,” the center is currently showing Heidi Latsky’s “Solo Flights ADA 30,” a compilation of very short dances created or filmed during the quarantine by 15 performers, many in their homes, many in silence. Together the pieces evoke a kind of movement meditation, the artists challenging and expanding notions of physicality and virtuosity while celebrating the beauty and wisdom of all bodies.
Separately, on Sunday at 2 p.m. Eastern time, the legislation’s anniversary is remembered with the Disability Unite Festival, a four-hour virtual parade of music, discussion, games and performances on Disability Unite’s website and YouTube channel. It will include works by the trailblazing AXIS Dance Company, Full Radius Dance and ZCO/DanceProject.