Disability and Performance: Agency or the Lack of It?

The performative aspect of disability is often seen as a means to assert a disabled identity, which in turn posits a counter discursive corporeality. When it comes to disability theatre, playing out one’s disabled body on stage, before an audience whose assumption on normative bodily aesthetics is questioned in the process, becomes an act of empowerment. A conscious act of expressing one’s physical condition invites debate on whether the experiential and the demonstrative are mutually compatible. Taking this conversation forward, I would like to focus my article on a disabled performers group from China, named China’s Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe, which has 110 disabled performers and was established in 1987. The troupe has so far performed in around 60 countries and received the title of UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2007. Their idea of performing disabled bodies inches towards what may be perceived as a “normalising” experience, rather than an overt manifestation of their physical condition. In one of their famous shows, called ‘My Dream’, the dancers are seen performing a visually captivating movement on stage, with a thousand hands gesticulating behind their lead dancer in what is known as the 'Thousand-hand Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva' ( see image below).

In a review for the book Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance, Michael M. Chemers says, “[the book]…is remarkably reflective of [a commotion that blurs conventional borderlines]; indeed, it is a characteristic of [the authors’] inquiries into both performance and disability that do not seek to deny the intrinsic messiness of both sites” (92). In the case of China’s Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe, does presenting disability through an embellished visual aesthetics deny the “intrinsic messiness” that Chemers talks about? Where do such performances by disabled artists stand in the context of inclusiveness and integration? Is the idea of an alternative narrative problematised through such representations?

On the other hand, in Sri Lanka, an organisation called Sunera Foundation runs the Butterflies Theatre which includes “disabled soldiers in its cast and [use] their disablement for a critique of the war”(Shaun and Soldatic 105). Jehan Aloysius, who choreographed the show ‘An Inspired Swan Lake’ with the disabled soldiers, is quoted saying, “‘I wanted the disabled cast including the disabled soldiers to feel sensuous and sexy [in the show]. That was a new experience for them because disability is seen as asexual. That was the kind of change I sought”(107). The idea, in this case, is to see these soldiers explicitly as political and historical subjects, who subvert conventional ideas on disability through the aesthetics of art. Reading the  representational politics actualised by the Sunera Foundation in tandem with  China’s Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe, a reductive analysis would suggest that the latter fails to exert its agency. A close reading of the troupe’s performance though suggests that it is not indeed a simply binary, despite the apparent commercialisation involved in their global presence.

In the Bodhisattva dance, the disabled artists appropriate a popular cultural icon of Guanyin or Kwanyin, the Goddess of love and mercy. The troupe claims that through their performance they intend to spread unity and peace in the world. For a viewer, their disability is only incidental to the performance. It can be argued that they do not challenge their socio-cultural othering by almost conforming to the norms of ableism, but a contrarian view can also be put forth. The dancers, in an interview, summed up their bonding by saying that one acts as an eye for the other, while the other acts as the ear for another. The objective of their performance, as elucidated by the troupe members, can easily be dismissed on grounds that it simplifies the social ontology of a disabled body. At the same time, the troupe’s attempt to convey a symbolic meaning to its audience through dance can be read as appropriating the normative to subvert the audience’s expectations of a disabled body. Also, if one watches closely the movement of the thousand hands behind the lead dancer, it resembles what is popularly termed as “freak show”, displaying dismembered hands behind a single body. Within the boundaries of what may be perceived as a normative narrative, these dancers perform the fantastical on stage and the “able gaze” of the audience is in turn displaced into precarity.

The medical model of disability views the disabled body as different and lacking and works towards fixing that difference, while the social model sees agency in that difference and puts the onus on  society which otherwise thrives on a monolithic structure. In an interview to ‘China Daily’, Tai Lihua, the lead dancer of the troupe, said, “I hope people can still look at me with ordinary eyes... I hope instead that more attention can be given to disabled people who need help.” The article goes on to mention how with enough practice, the performance of the troupe is nearly flawless. If we are to consider the idea of disability propounded in the interview, it hinges towards the medical model, which somewhat encompasses the idea of charity towards the disabled. In another interview to ‘LA Times’, the troupe’s manager, Liu Xiao Cheng, says, “It wasn't enough for this troupe to arouse people's mercies," he said. "We wanted their respect." The dancers then go on to talk about the hardships they faced as disabled people and how they eventually overcame it all by joining the troupe.

Disability rights has emerged out of the shadow of the charity model of disability, following the United Nations legislation on the subject in 2006 and the rise of disability studies as a critical discipline. In this context, I would like to say that the approach of accommodating divergent voices like Lihua and Cheng, besides the likes of Sunera Foundation’s Jehan Aloysius, on their ideas of a disabled body and its representation can be a step forward towards greater inclusiveness than regression. For all these voices, the space of engagement and dialogue can perhaps be carved only through acknowledging individual experiences and offering multitudinous ways in which societal discrimination can be challenged.

References                                                                                                              

Chemers, Michael . M. "Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance." Book and Performance Reviews (2005): 92. Web.

"A face for one thousand hands." China daily. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/06/content_422197.htm>.

Grech, Shaun, and Karen Soldatic. Disability in the global South: the critical handbook. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2016. Print.

"Their 'Dream' realized." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2017. <http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-dream27nov27-story.html>.

Rupsha Mukherjee has completed Bachelors and Masters in English Literature from Presidency University, Kolkata. Currently, she is working as a Deputy Editor with a publishing company.