I have had the opportunity and privilege to participate in dance conferences and festivals over the years. Some were massive gatherings with hundreds of participants and many workshop sessions to choose from. Others were small, local festivals like my very first experience with Body Shift back in 2009, when Forklift Danceworks and VSA Texas (now Art Spark Texas) organized our very first weekend intensive led and attended by local dancers.

In 2016, I participated in my very first MeetShareDance, which happened in my native Finland. What I found different about the MeetShareDance experience was that the whole group took all the workshops together, and the other teachers participated in everyone’s workshops. It felt like there was less of a hierarchy, as if there was an unspoken understanding that everyone in the room held important knowledge. 

On the last day of each MeetShareDance festival, there is a street parade where the whole group arrives at a public space in the city where the festival takes place. We dance there using the skills and techniques learned from the workshops presented during the festival. It is, and was, such a rewarding, positive, and empowering experience!

The first MeetShareDance Festival happened in May 2012 and was supposed to be ‘just’ a gathering of a few dance friends. In Madrid, participants danced in the studio, on the subway, and in the streets. Ten years later, the MeetShareDance festival has been organized nine times, been in seven different cities and countries, hosted more than 400 dancers, 43 international teachers, and taught 54 dance workshops.

Today, we are proud to announce that MeetShareDance Festival is happening for the first time in the US, and it’s here in Austin! MeetShareDance is an international festival based on inter-exchange philosophy, promoting the exchange of knowledge and experience through workshops. This is the tenth MeetShareDance festival, which has previously happened in seven European countries. Participants can expect three days of exciting programming, including four different workshops and a street parade, as well as meeting new professionals and dancers in the field of inclusive dance.

Confirmed artist-teachers are:

•Monika Požek the founder of MeetShareDance (Madrid, Spain)

•Eric Kupers of Dandelion Dancetheater (San Francisco, CA)

•Nina Martin of Lower Left (Marfa, TX)

•Amy Morrow of The Theorists (Austin, TX).

We will meet at UT Dance Department on Friday, and after the workshop, we are welcome to go and see the Fall for Dance performance. On Saturday, we will continue the workshops at the ZACH Theatre. We will meet in downtown Austin on Sunday, where we will warm up and do our Street Parade. 

You can register on our Eventbrite page or by calling the Art Spark Texas office at 512-454-9912, ext 102. You can contribute at the level you are comfortable with, or if you need a free registration, please email dance@artsparktx.org.

If you are planning on attending from out-of-town and are looking for someone to share accommodations with, please email dance@artsparktx.org and we will connect you. 

If you are local and can offer your room, house, or rental for our out-of-town guests, please email dance@artsparktx.org.

I am Rebecca Garcia, a senior Dance Studies student at Texas State University and an intern with Art Spark Texas. I have grown a passion for disability in the dance community after reading one of my peers’ research papers titled, “All Bodies Are Able Bodies.” A statement that stood out to me was, “Close your eyes, whom do you think of when you think of a dancer? Do you picture a tall, thin, white woman in a tutu doing a dance pose or an action pose? Now open your eyes, if you pictured that I’m here to change your mind.” After reading the paper, it redirected my focus in my dance career to work with dancers with disabilities. So, I reached out to one of my professors to get in touch with Art Spark Texas and their dance program to learn more about disability in the arts.  

My focus at Art Spark Texas was being a dancer. I was a principal dancer in the Don’t Dis the Vote Flash Mob. Leading up to the flash mob, all the dancers had gotten together to sit down and process what should be expected at the flash mob. We talked about what the dance movements should look like, what our body language should convey and how we can support one another. It was a great opportunity to go through that process with all the dancers because we listened to each other’s thoughts and creative ideas. It helped me realize that dancers with disabilities are not as restricted as I thought. It is all about communication – what their limit is through specific dance movements, their self-awareness through body contact, and asking permission to use other dancers’ assistive devices.  

I learned about disability culture. For example, a non-disabled person kneeling when talking to a wheelchair user, rather than towering over them, is a sign of seeing a person with a disability as an equal. I never knew this practice because I grew up not knowing anyone with a disability, let alone a dancer with one. However, that is not an excuse. It is something to be educated about because, as a society, it’s a subject matter to recognize.

After coming together from processing, we started to dance around the rehearsal space bringing to life the ideas we spoke about. There was so much creativity around the room. 

After rehearsals, all the dancers left with smiles on their faces and were excited to dance at Don’t Dis the Vote Flash Mob. At the end of the day, I asked myself the question, “What do I picture when I think of a dancer?” I did not refer to the tall, thin, white female dancer in a tutu. My vision changed to the principal dancers. I thought about how we all came from different backgrounds in dance, and how I learned to relax when dancing with people with disabilities. Gathering to express ourselves through the art of dance has been one of the best experiences in my dance career. I am fortunate to have gained some knowledge of disability culture during this experience. 

This May of 2022, I will be graduating from Texas State University. My dance career began at 19 years old; I trained in flamenco, modern, modern improvisation, ballet, jazz, and with teaching artists. One day, my goal is to start my own program reaching out to the inner-city kids of San Antonio, with and without disabilities, allowing kids to come and experience dance that I didn’t have when I was younger. My mission in this future program is to foster body positivity and build confidence through the art of dance. Creating a path to show that anyone can be a dancer and a performer, breaking down barriers to the image of what a “perfect” dancer should be. 

As someone who lives with significant physical limitations, I know all too well the obstacles that prevent people with disabilities from getting out and being a part of their community. On any given day, I might face challenges with caregivers, transportation, medical equipment, and assistive technology on which I depend. Even when everything aligns for a perfect outing, my body might disagree, or I may arrive at my destination to find that it isn’t accessible. The bottom line: my ability to participate is often determined by a combination of flexibility, accommodation, and luck.

This is why I, and so many others with disabilities, have been alarmed by the recent spate of restrictive voting laws. Along with people with disabilities, these restrictions also disproportionately impact people of color and low-income communities, of which we are a part. While I have not personally experienced difficulty accessing the polls, I understand that this is thanks to the privileges I enjoy: I have a (mostly) reliable vehicle, I have a caregiver and others who can assist me, I have accessible voting locations only a few miles away, and I have flexible hours at work that allow me to vote on a Tuesday or any early voting day. But, again, this is assuming that my body and all the services and equipment I rely on cooperate. So, you can imagine the added struggle that anyone without these privileges might experience in trying to vote.

Mail-in ballots, early and curbside voting, the wide availability of ballot drop boxes—these are just a few of the means that allow us to exercise our democratic right without fear that a health flareup or some transportation snafu will stand in the way of our vote. If we have several options, we know that, more than likely, one is going to work. If, however, these options are curtailed or eliminated entirely, this casts our vote in question. As each election approaches, we will have to work much harder than our non-disabled counterparts, or risk sitting it out.

At the same time, we recognize the tremendous power of the Disability Vote. With one in four Americans experiencing some form of disability, we represent a formidable voting bloc. Through our vote, we can shift misguided attitudes about disability, protect and fortify our rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and continue to expand services that enable us to participate in every aspect of community life, be it employment, education, the arts, and so forth.

It’s in celebration of this power that Art Spark Texas partnered with REV UP Texas and channelAustin to create Don’t Dis the Vote, a choreographed flash mob set to an original disability voting anthem. Even more exciting, you can join us in this project! The flash mob will take place Saturday, March 26. Register here.

People from across the political spectrum often question whether their vote even matters. I know because I’ve done it myself. But, at a time when voting restrictions are being enacted throughout our country, we have to ask ourselves: if our vote has no power, why would anyone try to suppress it? In reality, I think our vote is the greatest, and perhaps the only, power that we truly wield. Let’s show the power of the Disability Vote!

I have always danced.  An early childhood memory was of me throwing my little body in waves of spastic movements coordinated with sounds of outraged “own language” verbiage.  I didn’t know it then, but such were the humble beginnings of using movement to express thoughts and feelings which I could not put into words.  When I felt joy, I skipped and twirled, turning my face towards the sky to feel the sun on my skin.  When I was angry, I pounded the floors with my feet, pumping my arms in furious energy until I was panting and red-faced.  When I felt sadness, I slid across the cold tile floors in the house, grasping the emptiness with outstretched fingers.  As I got older, I learned to sit quietly; to fit within the social norms of being “ladylike.”  Yet in my mind’s eye, I danced, even though I was as still as a statue. 

At the age of 35, I finally found myself in my first technique class.  What a thrill it was to be in an actual dance class, even though I was the oldest in the class and was starting from zero.  I tried everything…Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Social Dance, Hula, Taiko. I took a job as a Company Manager of a dance studio, learning the intricacies of running a nonprofit dance organization. Through it all, I wondered where I fit in…what my role in the field could be.  I felt that something was missing, but I didn’t know what.  My heart told me that there had to be more to dance than performance or technique training. I encountered so many people who had a long list of reasons why they could not dance: (i) I’m too old; (ii) I don’t have a dancer’s body; (iii) I don’t have rhythm; (iv) I’m not flexible; and so many more.  I wanted to dispel these myths; but I did not have the knowledge, tools or language to convince them otherwise.  A dark cloud of doubt was my constant companion; my feelings of inadequacies echoed loudly within my head.  At one point, I considered giving up trying to be in the field and almost opted to take the easy way out by conforming to expectations dictated by circumstances.  BUT, a kernel of stubbornness within me kept me from completely throwing in the towel. 

One day, I found myself embarking upon an incredible dance journey.  I had just moved to Tucson, AZ from New York and, quite by accident, stumbled into a Mettler-based Community Dance class.  The advertisement for the class stated that it was open to all ages, all abilities and prior dance experience was not required.  Initially I was not interested in attending, as my limited imagination at that time did not allow me to understand how such an open class could even happen.  Ultimately, my curiosity got the better of me and I found myself at the Tucson Creative Dance Center for a 90-minute introduction to an approach that propelled me onto a path where my love for dance melded so effortlessly with my passion to bring dance back to everyday life.  Now I have an answer to those who have convinced themselves that dance could not be an accessible activity. 

What is Mettler-based Creative Dance?  It is the free approach to body movement pioneered by Barbara Mettler in her search for the “basic elements of dance that can make it immediately available to all people as a creative art activity.”  A Mettler-based approach utilizes improvisation to give objective, open-ended tasks that can be solved in many ways, giving individuals the freedom to have their own subjective responses to the experiences.  When we improvise, we are creating something new, and in turn, we are renewed.  An improvised dance captures unique moments in time that expresses the feelings of that moment.  When the dance is over, we let go of what was created…releasing it without the need to hold onto it.  The next time we dance, we create something entirely new, because we are new beings. 

While improvisation is a method that is widely used across many dance disciplines, Barbara Mettler’s expansion of it into group forms and expressions makes it a unique experience.   I paraphrase one of Barbara Mettler’s sayings: “Our approach is based on freedom, but our humanity demands relationship.”  Students are guided through movement explorations to sense and feel kinesthetically how their own bodies move; and then how to bring in their whole selves into a dance with and within the larger group.  The approach cultivates both individual and group experiences, providing a model for how people with different abilities, experiences and backgrounds can dance together.  There is an inherent inclusivity built into the approach that allows for unlimited creative possibilities to happen naturally for both individuals and groups.  It is an organic way of relating to each other, of dancing with each other. 

With support and guidance from Mettler Studios, I am fortunate to have opportunities to share Mettler-based dance with diverse communities internationally as well as in the U.S.  Through my non-profit dance company, Dancesequences Inc., which utilizes Mettler-based dance as a foundational resource, I have facilitated workshops and residencies in the United States and internationally (Vietnam, Indonesia, Peru) for vulnerable communities with little or no access to dance programming, including women rescued from trafficking and gender-based violence, children and adults with diverse abilities, LGBTQ support networks, members of memory care/assisted living facilities, students at local schools, community members at local recreational centers and more.  

We live in such a fractured world, where people’s differences are magnified, categorized, marginalized.  I am on a quest to find our commonalities…to find our language of being human together. When a group of people dance together, something interesting always happens.  Surprising outcomes a spark of inspiration that leads to a next dance…a sudden realization that we’re not alone…a glimpse into another person’s life…or simply the acceptance that it is perfectly okay to enjoy a moment of shared movement with another human being. 

I embrace the possibilities and challenges of changing perceptions through my dance practice.  I dance because everyone has something to share and express. Together we weave our separate stories into a dance tapestry that has the potential to free us from society-made labels.  This tapestry is never completed….it is always being woven, always changing, always evolving as we dance in community.  Let’s never stop dancing…together.

Join Karenne Koo in her upcoming workshop, Finding Each Other in the Virtual World Through Dance. This workshop will take place virtually on zoom on November 6th and 7th from 11:00am until 2:00pm CT.

For more information head to our calendar.

I must confess that I didn’t know where to begin with this conversation about Susie Angel because she is so many amazing things at once—but you have to start somewhere.

When Susie was little, she always dreamed about being a ballerina.

As she grew older, she never saw people with disabilities dancing, so she assumed it was an activity that would never be available to her. This dream, forgotten for so long, was reignited with her introduction to Art Spark Texas.

Wanting to write, Susie came across VSA Texas, now Art Spark Texas, while searching for creative writing workshops. Chris Strickling offered writing classes in which Susie took part, and at the tail end of the creative writing workshops, Chris asked Susie to be part of the theatre production she was working on.

In one of her first performances with the Actual Lives theatre program, Susie recreated an airport scene in which she met her long-distance partner, Juan, who visited her here in Austin. As Susie will tell you, people in wheelchairs get into planes first but come out last. So, there she was, waiting and waiting to see Juan. People around her were kissing and hugging and reuniting with their loved ones while Susie watched and waited with immense anticipation to be reunited with Juan. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a pathway cleared, revealing Juan walking down the breeze-way. Susie took off to meet him; with her wheelchair dashing toward Juan, people parted like the red sea to avoid getting crushed. She scooped up Juan, and he sat on her lap as they finally got to say a proper hello to each other. They recreated this entire scene as part of the play.

Susie was introduced to dance through another Actual Lives production which featured choreography by Alison Orr. Susie was immediately hooked as those long-ago dreams of being a ballerina called to her from the past. She remembers telling Alison that she wanted to do part of the dance out of her chair and on her knees. It took some convincing, but eventually, Allison agreed to include it. Unfortunately, when everyone was moving in a circle during the performance, Susie fell and hurt her knee, but she got right back up, continued with the dance, and no one even noticed. Chatting afterward, when Susie told her what had happened, Alison congratulated Susie for an incredible performance and for her ability to continue despite her injury. “Welcome to the world of dance,” she said, and that meant the world to Susie. From that point on, Susie continued studying dance at Austin Community College with Alison Orr and then became an integral part of Body Shift.

She recalled some of her favorite performances and collaborations fondly. Through Body Shift, Susie met Lucy Kerr, a then dance student at the University of Texas at Austin, who was interested in creating mixed-ability work. The work they created together was about the world Susie lives in: Breaking the myths around people with disabilities. But Susie’s all-time favorite dance piece was one she performed at the Austin Dance Festival in 2019. In this work, Susie had a solo where all the other dancers had the chance to follow her movements. She did backbends and pirouettes, her interpretation of ballet, and she felt like a ballerina on stage!

Do you know when you meet those people who shake any preconceived notion you’ve ever had about what humans can be? Since I met Susie in 2012, she has shown me repeatedly why she is precisely that. The way she has gracefully navigated the art world while overcoming medical challenges and proving her existence in a predominantly ableist society, is inspiring. She is firm when she needs to be and has gently put me in my place a couple of times as well, for which I’m grateful. It is truly an honor to write and share about her.

For Susie, her two passions are dancing and writing. She never thought she would be a dancer, but now it is a reality. She feels that the world has changed to be more inclusive but that sometimes people still see her disability instead of her. Susie is still writing and still dancing. Most recently, she was dancing her heart out, along with her partner Juan and dear friend Tanya in a trio on May 30th at this year’s Austin Dance Festival.

The late Jean Kennedy Smith, former ambassador to Ireland, was also the founder of Very Special Arts (VSA), an internationally recognized non-profit dedicated to creating a society in which people with disabilities can engage with the arts. At Smith’s memorial service this year, Lori Kissinger, the executive director of Borderless Art, was reminded of Smith’s diplomatic efforts which were integral to the Northern Ireland peace process, and was inspired with the idea of creating art with the theme of peace.

I was honored to be invited to be part of the collaborative process of creating this art through dance. So, for the past three weeks, I have been meeting virtually with dance students from Middle Tennessee State University and dancers from Borderless Art Tennessee to create peace-themed dances.

“ Peace comes from within. Do not seek it from without.”

So how does one make a dance piece about peace on Zoom, in seven classes, with people that you have never met before and with those who have not yet met one another in person? You need to find the right tools.
A couple of years ago, I met Stephanie Simpson, a dance educator whose sister is a special education teacher here in Austin ISD, at the National Dance Education Conference. There, Stephanie introduced me to a tool that she had created for her high school dance students which analyzes text as a motivation for your choreography. You can take lyrics, poems, metaphors and more, and analyze them by finding shapes that arise from the text, to see what speeds are present and what size and level are derived from the meaning of your text. Then, you create movement phrases and improvisational structures based upon your findings. This tool guides the creator to move away from imitating, or the literal representation of, the words, to being able to create more abstract movement. Perfect for this situation!

“How rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist.”

It is hard to not dwell or feel sad about missing the in-person experience with these students, and to be able to be there in person. I visit the breakout rooms in our Zoom classes in which the different groups are working together and it is so wonderful to witness their enthusiasm and creative processes. And yet there is still a strange juxtaposition. On the one hand I feel happy and excited to see the work, but, on the other hand, I feel the sense of loss that we are not in a big dance space all together moving, talking, exchanging ideas, and dancing. On the plus side, I’m getting more used to this virtual platform, and I recognize the accessibility and what it has done to break isolation for people with disabilities. There will be a virtual component in our work from this point on, but I’m also looking forward to being in-person in the dance and creative spaces with people.

“The sun will rise and we will try again”

Through it all though, we persevered with this project, and I can’t wait to see the results of our work. The final product will be a video that is a collage of each group performing their dances. It will be posted in our social media and YouTube channel so, make sure to check it out.
Thank you, Lori Kissinger and Borderless Arts Tennessee, and Meg Brooker, Associate Professor of the Department of Theater and Dance at MTSU, for inviting me and for collaborating with us on this project. And thank you to the Tennessee Arts Commission for supporting this work.

Silva Laukkanen, Integrated Dance
silva@artsparktx.org
Art Spark Texas

by Silva Laukkanen

After a couple years of research, planning and a whole lot of educational and touching discussions, Emmaly Wiederholt and I are about to publish our second round of interviews from the Discussing Disabilities in Dance book project. Instead of feeling that we are near the end, I feel like we have only just begun to understand the breadth of the field of disability in dance. In every interview, I learn about at least one more artist whose story needs to be recorded, which makes it hard to imagine the end of a project like this. It has been amazing to realize the size of this network and how closely knit it is. Its size and diversity have allowed Emmaly and me to cover many different genres as well as include different disabilities.

Discussing Disabilities in Dance was born back in 2017, when I was invited to join Emmaly Wiederholt and Alice Shepard to brainstorm Alice’s ideas on how to educate and spread the stories of people with disabilities who have been working for some time in the arts. While we did not know at the time what form it would take, I knew immediately that I was on board. After discussing the themes and topics that Alice had voiced, we decided to pair a list of questions with a list of people and compile the resulting interviews into a book. We started interviewing people in 2017 and published our first round of interviews about a year ago. Our team was joined by Liz Brent-Maldonado, a California based artist who has been creating all the vibrant illustrations of our interviewees.

One question that has resonated most with me because of my own tumultuous relationship with the traditional dance field and the hierarchy in it, is the question: Would you like to see disability in dance assimilated into the mainstream? There is huge variation in how people feel about this; the answers to this question can vary from a long discussion of subtleties to a simple yes or no. I love the visions that people have shared with us for the future. Clearly what mainstream means and represents is different from person to person, country to country, and culture to culture.

During these times when a sense of happiness or even motivation is quite the challenge to achieve, this book project keeps me excited and moving. To learn about yet another dancer with a disability working on the other side of the world, or even in the city I live in, is rewarding. What drives me is the constant learning that happens when I listen and work creatively with people whose lives have taken different paths than mine, and whose bodies and minds live their everyday lives differently than I do. It stretches my idea of who can dance and what dance is as an art form. It makes me aware of my preconceived notions of abilities and the way we in which we distribute the positions of authority in the dance field. Contemplating all this makes me want to shake the ground I’m on to rearrange the board.

It fills me with joy to share these important stories that prompt us to contemplate who can dance. It also asks how those of us who are temporarily able bodied to ensure that our work and spaces are accessible and welcoming to all. I hope these interviews make you look around your dance spaces and see who is not there and then ask: Why are they not there and what can I do to make the change?

Silva Laukkanen
Integrated Dance
Art Spark Texas

Image description: Hannah is depicted stepping forward on the diagonal, her legs in a deep bend. Her torso is twisted toward the other diagonal and her arms are held in front of her as if she is embracing something invisible. She is drawn wearing all gray with theatrical eye makeup. Strokes of blue and red swirl around her.

Image description: Alice is drawn facing to the right in her chair, leaning and looking upward and right. Her arms are crossed and crutches extend from either arm. She is portrayed as smiling softly. Quotes from her interview surround her, as well as red streaks of energy and action.

Image description: A figure drawn from the back is sitting in a wheelchair. One hand reaches down to the side of the chair where their hand connects with a blue pool. The other hand reaches up into the air with an open, extended palm. A red line runs from one hand through their back to the other. The figure’s face is lifted upward toward the extended palm.

Image description: Sidiki is depicted playing a djembe drum. The drum is blue and Sidiki is suspended above it wearing white. His hands play the drum and his feet are around his torso. Red lines of energy reverberate around him.

Your safety is of the utmost importance to us. Amid growing concerns of COVID-19, we are monitoring developments related to the virus via the guidelines provided by The City of Austin, Austin Independent School District, and the Centers for Disease Control. The Art Sparks Texas office will remain open for the foreseeable future, but we must make some adjustments in our programming to ensure the wellbeing of our artists and staff.

Update: All classes, events, and services canceled until further notice.

Out of an abundance of caution we have decided to cancel, or postpone, all upcoming classes and events, including the following:

March 14 – Open Mic at Malvern Books
March 16-20, Spring Break Giving Voice class.
March 21 – May 11, Giving Voice mentorship
March 24 – Social Media Internship (may start later in April)
Match 28 – Speaking Advocates class
March 28 – Opening Minds, Opening Doors (may start later in April)
Canceled until further notice – Elements classes
March and April – All Writers’ Circle for Veterans in San Marcos
April 16 – Art in the Park at Fiesta Gardens

If there are any changes to our daily hours of operation, we’ll let you know as soon as possible. In the meantime, we are taking extra precautions with the health of our visitors and artists.

Thank you for being a part of Art Spark Texas. We look forward to seeing you, happy and healthy, at one of our events very soon.

Celia Hughes, Executive Director Art Spark Texas
celia@artsparktx.org

As the Director of Integrated Dance here at Art Spark Texas, when I look at what the year 2020 holds for Art Spark Dance and Body Shift, I get very excited! I want to share some opportunities available for you to join us which involve dance, and the residencies we are so pleased to present.

We will continue with our beloved Elements class which takes place every second and fourth Saturday of the month. The first for this year is Saturday, January 25th from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. The fee is on a sliding scale from $5-$20, but no one will be turned away because of lack of funds. We continue to be hosted at the YMCA Town Lake, 1100 W Cesar Chavez Street in Austin. The class will be taught by me, Silva Laukkanen. You can learn more about our classes on Facebook by liking the Art Spark Texas and Body Shift pages.

We will continue with our Foundations class in March. This class will focus more on how to teach inclusive dance and it will be taught by Veronica DeWitt, who is a master teacher of the DanceAbility method. The times and location will be announced later in February.

Our ongoing residencies are at Rosedale School where we started a dance program back in 2014, and our monthly Movement Madness classes at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Since 2016, we have been part of the weekly classes at the VA Outpatient Clinic. Last year we had the pleasure of creating a dance performance with the veterans. Look for a video that will be released later in the Spring about that process.

February will be a busy month for us. Silva, Veronica and Tanya will leave to teach a three-day residency in Tampa, Florida at the University of South Florida. Then, on Saturday, February 15th, Axis Dance Company will be in Austin to perform their latest production IN-TER-TWINE at the Bass Concert Hall. On Sunday, February 16th, Axis Dance Company will host a workshop: “An Introductory Teacher Training in Fundamentals of Inclusive Teaching and Working with Diverse Students” from 2:00 to 5:00 PM. The location is TBD. Early bird registration for this ends Saturday, February 1st, so get your tickets now for the workshop before the price goes up.

Looking ahead to the future, we already know that Karenne Koo will be back in the Fall to teach a Mettler-Based Dance Improvisation weekend workshop. If you want to know more about any of the opportunities here at Art Spark Texas or with Body Shift, please send me an email (Silva@artsparktx.org) and I will be happy to sit down with you (or make a dance about it with you) to see how you can be part of our programming.

-Silva Laukkanen, Director of Integrated Dance

Image description left to right:

Gallery room with blue oblong made of different-sized cubes and rectangular on the wall and in the middle of the image there is an arch built from wood where there is person laying on top of it on their back. On the left side of them there is a person in a wheelchair and on the right side of them there is a person standing in front of a white wall.

People sitting in a circle in the gallery room with white walls and blue oblong installation made of different shades and sizes of rectangular and squares. Some people are on the floor, some on their wheelchairs with smiles on their faces.

People sitting either on the floor or in their wheelchairs and behind them there is red and black rectangular and squares of different sizes painted on the wall. Everyone is looking off camera but in the same direction.

Photo credit: James Wilkus Photography