Physically integrated dance
[3] Yvonne Rainer, a prominent post-modern dancer and choreographer, was recovering from a surgery in 1967 when she restaged a version of her famous work Trio A on herself, called it Convalescent Dance and performed it at the Playhouse at Hunter College in New York.
[4] In 2010, in her 70s, Rainer restaged the piece again and called it Trio A: Geriatric with Talking to showcase how with her older body "getting up and down off the floor requires a lot more maneuvering than it used to".
[6] As a new generation entered in the movement in the late 2010s and early 2020s, new perspectives of how to better support, train, and accommodate disabled dancers emerged.
[8] Mesher is able to meet the bar of uniformity because her particular disability does not impact the majority of the choreography and she has found ways to modify movements of her left arm to match closely enough to the other dancers.
[4] Directors and choreographers of physically integrated dance tend to approach the work by looking at the abilities of disabled dancers as additive rather than focusing on what they cannot do.
[9] Adam Benjamin, author of Making an Entrance: Theory and Practice for Disabled and Non-Disabled Dancers (2002), has written about the perhaps unnecessary labelling of a dance performance as "integrated" or "inclusive" dance when advertising it to the public, calling it, "a bit like a roadsign warning the unwary theatre-goer of possible encounters with wheelchairs—it tells us that we can expect to see a disabled person on stage, which can only leave us asking, 'Is that really necessary?
'"[10] Part of the reason for this practice may be the breaking of a taboo for some audience members to see bodies in many conditions performing on stage, an event that may create astonishment, among other reactions.
Audiences in Western cultures are accustomed to seeing only dancers in peak physical condition when they attend performances at top theatres.
It was founded in 1987 and was one of the first contemporary dance companies in the world to consciously develop choreography that integrates dancers with and without physical disabilities.
[15] DV8 Physical Theatre was formed in 1986 by an independent collective of British dancers who, they claim, had become frustrated and disillusioned with the preoccupation and direction of most dance.
Full Radius Dance is an American company based in Atlanta, Georgia composed of professional dancers with and without physical disabilities.
The Amici Dance Theatre Company, founded by Wolfgang Stange in 1980 and based in London, UK, includes dancers with physical and also mental disabilities.
[4][21] As of March 2021, the Interim Artistic Director was Pelenakeke Brown; she is the first disabled person to hold the title in the company's 24-year history.
[4] A new leadership group was established at the end of 2021 called the Artistic Direction Panel and Lusi Faiva, Suzanne Cowen and Rodney Bell were appointed.
