Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I'm Adam Navis. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Two long, red pieces cloth hang down the center of the performance area. Two people dance together between them. They climb and move on the cloth. They turn and hang in the air. This dance takes place both on the ground and in the air. But there is something different about the female dancer. She does not look like most other dancers. She has no legs!
Voice 2
Today's Spotlight is on The GIMP Project. The GIMP Project is a group of people who would not normally be considered dancers. They are missing legs, or an arm, or have nerve diseases. They would not have a place in any other dance group. But as part of The GIMP Project, they have found a way to accept who they are and make something beautiful.
Voice 1
The word "gimp" was chosen as a name because it has several meanings. It can mean a long piece of cloth. It can mean to have a fighting spirit. It can also be a term for a person who cannot walk correctly. Usually it is unkind to call a person a "gimp". But part of what The GIMP Project is trying to do is to question what people think it means to be different.
Voice 2
Heidi Latsky watches her dancers go through their dances. She started The GIMP Project. She stops the dance and offers a new idea. She joins the dancers to show what she is trying to say. Heidi Latsky has been a professional dancer for many years. She has both designed dances and taught dancing to other people. She is respected in the New York dance community. With GIMP, she wanted to try something different. She says:
Voice 3
"People go to dance events to see what they cannot do themselves. Dancers are often seen as limitless. Disabled persons are often seen as basically unable. Bringing these two groups together in GIMP questions normal ideas of dance, performance, and body image. GIMP's special mix of arms and legs offers an uncommon beauty. It examines the ways we are often identified or defined by our bodies."
Voice 2
A performance by GIMP is not like any other kind of dance show. The people watching cannot forget that the dancers are different. But GIMP is still a real dance show. It is still a performance. Heidi Latsky explains how this can be true:
Voice 3
"GIMP is about beauty. Not an easy and common beauty, but a more unexpected one. It is a beauty that comes from taking a risk. We show each person's special beauty. In GIMP, both watchers and performers know they are being watched. This leads to a change in thinking. It leads to a deep sense that the way we see the world has changed."
Voice 1
But who would want to do what these dancers do? A disabled person often has people look and point at him. Why then, would they want to get up in front of people and dance? Why would anyone want to be watched like this? Well, it is exactly because they are watched by people they do not know that makes them want to dance. One dancer from GIMP is Lawrence Carter-Long. He has cerebral palsy, a condition that makes it difficult for him to walk normally. He says:
Voice 4
"Disability in our culture is permitted to encourage people. We are permitted to be heroes. We are sometimes permitted to be weak and useless. What we are not permitted to be is creative."
Voice 1
The dancers of GIMP are trying to break down the idea of what limits them. They are trying to show that the limits most people put on them are not real limits. Through GIMP they show that they can dance. If someone without legs can dance, it raises a question. What else can disabled people do that able-bodied people think they cannot? Again, here is Lawrence Carter-Long:
Voice 4
"This is no safe, controlled mix of dance and disability. It is a collision. This is two worlds come crashing together that are not supposed to exist together."
Voice 2
Katherine Long is a GIMP dancer from England. She was born with no upper leg joints, no knee caps and no left arm. She talks about dancing in front of people:
Voice 5
"When I put myself out there, I am inviting people to look at me. I am controlling the looking. But when I am on the street I am not inviting people to look at me. But they look anyway. Dancing puts me into a bit more of a controlled situation. I try to encourage people to think about the way they look at different bodies and their own body. They do not know how to react. They do not know what to say. I think they are so surprised that they often need time to process it. They need time for their brains to take in what they have seen - what they have been a part of as an audience."
Voice 2
GIMP is trying to give people the space to look and to ask questions. GIMP wants them to understand that just because people look different, that does not mean that they cannot make something beautiful and wonderful. Heidi Latsky says:
Voice 3
"The goal of GIMP is to honour each person's particular way of moving. To make a dance that speaks to who they are, to their weaknesses and to their strengths and their personalities. Like Lawrence who has a very particular way of walking. I cannot change the way he walks. There is so much movement in the way he walks that is almost like music. It has added something that I could never do. He just does it naturally.
Voice 2
All people have limits. For the dancers of GIMP, their limits are clear and easy to see. But every person is limited by something. It could be fear, or intelligence, or for some, the situation of their life. Some people deny their limits. Other people fight against them. But some people, like the dancers of GIMP, accept who they are and decide to make something beautiful.
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