Performing Disability: Staging the Actual

The actual disabled body in dance and theater closes representational structures; it is always the most present presence. With this as her premise, Telory Davies uses physical and cognitive impairment to unsettle naturalized assumptions about ability. Changing notions of the body are central to her work and contemporary critical theory in general; disability is her point of entry into this larger conversation. She proposes ¿actualism¿ as contemporary disability performance¿s strongest means of transforming U. S. dance and theater. This new practice makes the accommodation of difference more tangible and encourages audience members to look with alternative viewing strategies; in effect, to look differently at difference. Through interviews and performance analysis, Davies explores the artists¿ goals and the performers¿ experiences in order to demonstrate how disability performance challenges non-disabled space, interpersonal relations, and definitions of ability. Disability scholars and activists, Performance Studies instructors, and anyone interested in identity politics will benefit from this book¿s combination of theory, history, and thick description.