Conversation

Isabelle Ginot

Being a vulnerable dancer

Photo Lara Ziörjen
Photo Lara Ziörjen

18.03.23 — 14:00

CN D Pantin

How can dance engage with fragile health? Where do health and disease begin and stop when one is a dancer? How can one think of themselves as a dancer when suffering from a chronic illness? Since the “AIDS years”, an astounding silence continues to weigh on the physical and mental fallibility of dancers: however, some of them live with chronic diseases or disabilities, that they acquired either during or before their training or early career – and they are still dancing. Which skills and knowledge have they acquired in the process, and how did they learn to see themselves as dancers with these fragilities, and not just as either dancers or fragile beings? Why is this question a taboo? This conversation with “expert-dancers” who live and work with chronic diseases (HIV or other diseases) will be led by Isabelle Ginot; the goal is to open a public debate which will contribute to breaking the silence and transform the way we represent disabled or fragile dancers and how training and working can evolve in that context.