Comments on the IDEA Inclusion Project.
By Mark Lamb, Executive Artistic Director of Circle Modern Dance Company

My mission as a dance artist is to foster the dance in all people I work with, regardless of their conception of body image, or dance ability, or their ideas of what dance is "supposed" to be. When I myself was a student in college I was studying ballet and rigid modern dance techniques. My teachers placed great value on technical virtuosity, and I found myself frustrated in my attempts to get my leg a little higher or balance on the ball of my foot just a second longer. My body had limits.

While on a break from college, I was at home visiting my nephew, who was at the time a toddler, and I noticed that when I played music for him, without any prompting he began to dance instinctually to the music. No one had taught him this dance; it seemed as natural as breathing. The value of dance became so clear to me in that moment when I was watching my
nephew bounce and sway to the music, unrehearsed and without judgment. I think this moment with my nephew changed my perception forever as a dance artist.

Another defining moment was when I met Liz Lerman. [ http://www.danceexchange.org/] She was able to give me so many tools and so much information to help me carry on my own mission that "everyone has the right to dance." Many of the comments about my process that Fran and Barbara make on this website reflect practices when making dances that were inspired by the teachings of Liz Lerman. Liz told me to honor the people and their stories, so I feel I should honor her with acknowledgment for giving me the inspiration to continue the work in my community.

One great source of understanding and creativity that Liz challenged me to work with is a set of four simple questions to begin with before making a dance. They are:

Who is doing the dancing?

What is the dancing about?

Where are they dancing?

AND

Who cares?

I feel my answers to these questions might help you to understand my take, as one of the collaborating artists, on the Inclusion Project and our performance event:

Who is doing the dancing?

A diverse group of children of all ages ethnicities, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. I must say that trying to find the blend in the mix certainly was challenging and often times frustrating. Good art takes discipline and hard work in any context. In the end, the joy and bonds between such a variety of performers outshone some of the obvious bobbles that can make a choreographer wince.

What is the dancing about?

Pure and simple: Inclusion. Barbara, Wayne, Fran and I discussed many factors, implications, strategies, but the bottom line for me was inclusion. Luckily Alana DaLoach, a friend and sound score artist already had a sound collage that fit many of our needs wonderfully. My goal was to try to show people what these children might experience on a daily basis concerning issues of exclusion in school settings, and then to show the beauty of working together inclusively.

Where are they dancing?

Wayne and others created a beautiful installation piece that served not only as a set, but also as a place where people could see the law. The visual elements defined a space for the dancing, and we also had an area where the audience could share their own ideas, experiences and feelings on a story board. The installation stood alone as a piece of interactive art, and I was honored to have it as a place for creating the dance with the children.

Who cares?

Maybe the person reading these comments can answer this final question. Honestly, I was surprised at the response to our performances. Like so much of life, this was an instance where I wished we had more time to perfect the performance. But over the years I have come to realize that sometimes we do our best and keep moving ahead, and sometimes it happens that we touch people or communicate things that are beyond our initial expectations or understanding.

In the heat of striving for near-perfection while living with unavoidable limitations, I also try and relish the "small" moments. One of these moments came at the end of our first performance, when the dancers took a bow, and all left the stage except for Barbara's daughter India. In a truimphant gesture, with her pompoms waving overhead, India proclaimed, "We did it!" Barbara ran to her on the stage and instinctively gave her a mother's hug. The two of them embraced, and theirs were not the only tears in the house at that moment. Times like these are when I can easily answer the question "Who cares?" I do.