Counter Balance: Dance, Community, and Legacy

This post is an excerpt from my article on Sixty Inches From Center, which supports and promotes art and writing that thrives primarily outside of mainstream historical narratives.

Integrated dance may be a new concept for some, but the fierce team behind Counter Balance: The Power of Integrated Dance have been bringing this powerful type of performance to Chicago audiences for years. Co-artistic directors Ginger Lane and Stephanie Clemens, along with Access Living, Bodies of Work, and MOMENTA, presented this 9th annual showcase of physically integrated works by choreographers and dancers with and without disabilities in early September.

The audience, which included families with children, disability community members, and dance enthusiasts, were treated to eleven pieces in two acts. Local choreographers included Ginger Lane, Sarah Cullen Fuller, Anita Fillmore Kenney, Kris Lenzo, Sarah Najera, and the internationally known Alice Sheppard.

I had the opportunity to speak with Sarah Najera who not only choreographed the particularly lovely “Duet in C Major,” but also recently took the helm as Executive Director of MOMENTA. As the resident performing arts company of the Academy of Movement and Music in Oak Park, MOMENTA has been working with dancers and choreographers with disabilities since 2003. In speaking about her process for choreographing integrated dance, Najera said she has a “finished movement in mind and we work together to get there.” For “Duet in C Major,” performed by Julia Cox and Robby Williams, weekly rehearsals over the course of the summer emphasized collaboration and trial and error. “Every rehearsal we would experiment and pull together a few phrases I was happy with,” explained Najera. Video recording those rehearsals allowed her to map the final piece as it was presented. Highlights included the pair moving as one, using Williams’ chair to propel them both, as well as Cox using her arms in a circular motion to mimic the shape and rhythm of Williams’ chair wheels. The result was a playful and joyous performance.

Counter Balance co-artistic director and choreographer Ginger Lane, also took the time to talk with me about her practice. “I look for music that speaks to me, from there I try to create a work that’s going to embrace the dancer’s natural movement,” said Lane. As a dancer in several pieces throughout the day’s performance herself, Lane’s motions are very lyrical. In “Re-Membering a World to Come,” Lane literally floats into the air, thanks to the smooth hydraulic lift of her motorized chair. When she first started working with Kris Lenzo, a dancer with incredible physicality and bold movements, Lane admits she was trying to get him to move the way she does. Through experience and getting to know her collaborators, Lane now makes the point to “work with the dancer’s natural inclinations and abilities—to create something that’s going to make [them] look good.”

Read the rest of this piece at Sixty Inches From Center.

This article is dedicated to the memory of Marca Bristo and her tireless championing of the disability community. Rest in Power, Marca.