Integrated dance arrives in Ireland

From the Irish Times. In the picture, workshop participants Jennifer Kiely and Claire Cannesson work on a routine at the Firkin Crane Centre.

Activities for people with physical disabilities and those who are able-bodied often tend to be quite segregated, reinforcing the differences between those with disabilities and those without.

However, a relatively new initiative in Cork city is seeking to create a uniquely inclusive environment where both disabled and able-bodied people can interact with each other - through the medium of dance.

Based on a concept known as "integrated dance", the workshops use the medium of contemporary dance to allow people with physical disabilities and those without to dance together, at the same time broadening each other's perceptions of the human body and its capabilities rather than its limitations.

The Cork-based initiative - known as Croí Glan or "clear heart" - is running integrated dance workshops in the city's hub of dance, the Firkin Crane Centre, as well as staging performances for the public to see, first-hand, the results of this cutting-edge dance form.

"It's very empowering to dance, whether you have a disability or not, as everyone gets to have a bigger movement range than normal and, also, on a physical level it helps to build up strength and stamina," explains one of the co-founders and artistic director of Croí Glan, Tara Brandel.

"Integrated dance has the ability to create this incredibly inclusive environment for everyone taking part, so much so that it almost becomes irrelevant whether you have a disability or not," she adds.

Brandel, originally from West Cork, has been working as a contemporary dancer for about 20 years. After training and working in London for four years, she moved to San Francisco, where she was introduced to the concept of integrated dance.

"I began to get a bit bored of the movement vocabulary that I was already doing and felt that integrated dance allowed me to move in completely unique ways, which for a dancer is mind-blowing."

Although a relatively new concept in Ireland, integrated dance is making great strides in the world of dance, highlights Brandel.

"Professional dancers with disabilities would in fact argue that they are at the cutting edge of contemporary dance," she says. "Because their bodies are so unique, you can't ever codify their movements, so they are moving in completely unique ways."

Brandel emphasises that integrated dance classes have many benefits for all participants - not just on a physical but also mental and emotional levels.

"For example, a lot of the dancers who are wheelchair users would actually work out of their wheelchairs on the floor, which can be an extremely liberating experience," she explains.

"In order to do this, wheelchair users have to literally rebuild the neuropathways in their brain to work out the movement step by step. This is very beneficial for the participants as it helps them increase their movement range; at the same time, by doing the actual movements themselves, they are able to increase their physical strength."

Croí Glan's other co-founder, Rhona Coughlan, is herself a wheelchair user and says that integrated dance has given her the chance to fulfil one of her lifelong dreams.

"Since I was very young, I've always loved dance and very naively thought that I could take part in dance classes like everyone else," recalls Coughlan.

"But when I asked to join my school's local dance classes I was refused outright, so I decided to set up my own dance classes with two of my schoolfriends!"

After secondary school, Coughlan abandoned her dreams of becoming a dancer until she saw a performance by the UK integrated dance company CandoCo when they came to Ireland in the 1990s.

"I was blown away by the performance and ever since then have had this idea building up in the back of my mind that I wanted to become involved in integrated dance."

When Coughlan phoned the Firkin Crane to inquire about integrated dance classes, she was put in contact with Brandel, who had recently moved back to Ireland and was interested in applying the expertise she had gained abroad to set up her own integrated dance company.

The pair joined forces to set up Croí Glan, working together as dance partners to stage integrated dance performances, as well as organising workshops for both people with physical disabilities the able-bodied.

Since then, Coughlan has also been trained as an integrated dance teacher and is running her first series of classes at the Firkin Crane this autumn.

"The focus of the classes if very much about working to people's abilities and strengths, rather than their limitations," stresses Coughlan. "For example, a wheelchair user may have a very strong upper body and weaker spine, whereas an able-bodied person may have weaker arms but a stronger lower back."

Brandel adds that the classes have as many physical and mental benefits for able-bodied participants as it does for those who are physically disabled.

"As an able-bodied person, it can be a very healing and profound experience to dance with people with physical disabilities - in a sense, you have to expand your physical and emotional world beyond your normal comfort zone and to take risks more so than those with disabilities have to," she says.

"That is the unique aspect of integrated dance - everyone learns from each other and gets to experience a different way of moving, so that after a while the boundaries between disability and ability begin to completely fade away."