Micro‐bodily mobilities: Choreographing geographies and mobilities of dance and disability

Abstract

This paper examines the mobile and embodied geographies of four able‐bodied dancers following their artistic encounters with disability in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Uniquely, I work with the dancing body to examine the differentiated experiences of mobility, and to uncover the performative role of the able body in unravelling assumptions around the skills and artistry of disability dance. Empirical research developed in response to a choreographic dialogue held between the British dance company BalletBoyz and the disabled dancers of Ethiopia's Adugna Potentials. Post‐artistic exchange interviews and performance‐based observations with the BalletBoyz are mobilised here to advance geographical knowledge about the embodied, performative and practised dimensions of micro‐bodily mobility. Equally, I assert the creative potential of the dancing body to probe the social construction of imperfect mobility by exceeding an ablest mobile experience, and inverting expectations around bodily disability.