[00:00:01] Speaker A: You, KPI.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: And good evening. Thank you for joining Disability and Progress, where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. Oops, sorry. My name is Sam. I'm host of this show. Thank you so much for tuning in. We've got a whole bunch of people here, and I hope everyone has muted their phone.
Let's see. Well, first of all, just a couple reminders that if you want to be on my email list, you can email me at
[email protected].
My research woman charlene Doll is with me. Where are you, Charlene?
You do.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: There it is.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Say hello, Charlene. Oh, where are you? Say it again. Good evening. There you go.
Glad to have you. Let's see. So I'm going to introduce who we have in the studio because it's a little bit of a maze here. We have Lexi. Samara. Hello, Lexi.
[00:02:10] Speaker D: Hello.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Where are you?
[00:02:12] Speaker D: Hello.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: There you go. We have Galen Smith. Hello, Galen.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Thank you so much for being with us.
[00:02:22] Speaker E: You're welcome. Glad to be here.
[00:02:23] Speaker B: And Galen and Lexi are from Young Dance. And we have Amy Saloway. Hi, Amy.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: Hey. Hello.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yes.
And Amy's from Amy's. From Amyland. No. Amy's from off Kilter.
So she will be talking to us about that and many other things, as I know she is. Very so okay. Anyway, I was leaving an obnoxious message down here. Voicemail. Amy, don't mind me.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: It couldn't be more obnoxious than the one I left for you. The other excellent. Excellent.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Well, hey, you know what?
Okay, so let's start out by everyone talking about themselves in a way, but first we're going to start out by Amy. I want you to tell us a little bit about Off Leash. I guess Off Leash is kind of the parent talk about off leash and the connection they have to the disability community, right?
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I think those two names are sometimes confusing for people. So Off Kilter, the Off Kilter Cabaret, is a project of the talk intro leash first. I know, I'm getting that's the second half of my sentence. Okay. Off Kilter is a project of Off Leash Area, which is a multidisciplinary performing arts company created by artistic directors Paul Herwig and Jennifer Fur Ilsa, who are a couple and who have made theater and performance individually and together for over 30 years.
So Off Leash Area's mission is to create and present original risk taking productions and programming throughout the Twin Cities.
They have done many things over the years. One is the Neighborhood Garage Tour, where they tour a show to people's garages during the summer all over the Twin Cities and the suburbs. And these shows are amazingly colorful and bright and inclusive and often turn into neighborhood parties afterwards.
And then they also have created their own sort of dance focused pieces, often with gorgeous visuals, because Paul is an amazing set and liney designer, and they have always been really inclusive of and sort of celebratory towards artists with disabilities.
This is partly because both of them have connections to the disability world. Paul has had low vision since birth. Jennifer's brother, who passed away a decade ago, had chronic paranoid schizophrenia. So she grew up with a lot of sort of involvement in the mental health community.
And so they've made shows that are not only about all the various things that happen in the human body and the human mind, but they've included performers who have disabilities, who are in wheelchairs, who have other differences, and that's really stood out in their shows over the years. So the Off Kilter Cabaret was sort of another step past that.
The thought that what if we not only made theater that included artists with differences, but actually made a show for artists with differences that would give them greater opportunities, that would create more visibility and that would be inclusive towards audiences, that would make audiences feel like, oh, my gosh, we're represented. This show is accessible, and now there is a greater sense of us here in the performing arts.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: So a show for people with differences, created in many ways by people with differences.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So by, for and about a cabaret show that is entirely populated by artists with disabilities, that has accessibility not only built into the show, but built into the experience of seeing the show. So a show that audience members could come to and know that there is interpretation, that there's accessibility in the building, that they can respond any way they want to, and that maybe gives them a chance to feel like they themselves are more seen in the world.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: And this is the second Cabaret. So did you want to give some details of the 2023 Off Kilter Cabaret?
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Yeah, this is our second year. So this project actually was brainstormed and created by the creative team, I should probably say our names at some point soon. Before the pandemic. Our first meeting was three days before the original COVID lockdown in 2020. So I think we met something like March 15, 2023 days later, the world closed up, closed its little shell. So this project got delayed for quite a while. It was supposed to have its inception, I think, three years before it did, but now we are finally rolling. And this is the second year of the Off Filter Cabaret. So this year's Cabaret happens at the Tech Box Theater in downtown Minneapolis, which is the corner of Fifth and Hennepin, right by the light rail drop off. And the Tech Box, I think it's on the second floor, right? It is, yes. And this happens November 17 to the 19th. So Friday through Sunday, there's three performances. The 17th and 18th are at 07:30 P.m.. Sunday the 19th is at 02:00 p.m..
The cabaret features seven artists who artists meaning either group or individual. So there's seven different acts representing a huge range of sort of theater, modalities, dance, instrumental music, stand up comedy, et cetera. And tickets are available on the off leash area website, which is three W dot offleasharea. O-F-F-L-E-A-S-H.
Do they have the dash between? There no dash.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: So different than okay. Gotcha.
[00:09:51] Speaker A: Yeah. What am I missing?
[00:09:52] Speaker B: You are not missing. But I was so I need to stop you just a minute and say, Gabriel, please don't hunt me down. I'm so I, like, introduced everyone except for Gabe.
I'm sorry. Gabriel.
[00:10:05] Speaker C: I was going to say something when there was a little break in there at some point.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: So Gabriel Roderick. Is that how you pronounce Roderick? Roderick, yeah. Thank you.
Is also with us from Young Dance and Off Kilter. He kind of double does things. I guess that's how you always do it, right?
[00:10:25] Speaker C: I do it too much.
[00:10:27] Speaker B: That's all good.
But anyway, so then you can doubly forgive me for getting absolutely. Thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Amy, I was going to say that.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: The planning committee for this project is the membership of the sort of planning, organizing, whatever, production team is two thirds folks with disabilities. So Gabriel is one of those people. I am one of those people. You, Sam, are on that committee. And then John Scalin, who was the director of VSA Arts, which sadly, does not exist anymore, but that was one of the big disabilities in the arts organizations here in town.
And then Jennifer and Paul are the other two.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: John, you know, I don't know. He's waiting for his disability. He's hoping. He always says his memory is his. So who right.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Right. Eventually everybody will be eventually.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Sad but true.
So who are the people in the cabaret this year?
Who are the acts?
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So some of the acts are making another appearance. They're folks that we saw and loved last year, and some are totally new.
So Braille, the artist known as Braille, was part of last year's cabaret, and she is in this one as well, doing a piece called Log In, Log Out, which is spoken word. Oh, that's I'm going to backtrack for a moment, Sam, and say that these cabarets have a theme as well.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Yes. So last year's theme was organ recital, sort of a play on the classical music term. And we encouraged artists to think about what organ are you fixated on? Or what organ sort of dictates your life?
What organ are you so grateful for or so furious at? Things like that. And then this year's theme is Inside, Outside, Inside Out. So we put out the call to artists saying, what are environments in which you feel included or excluded? What are ways in the world that you know that you are presenting your inside self or hindered by your outside self?
What would you turn around? What would you match or mismatch or redo that would change where you're on the inside, where you're on the outside and whether you feel inside out or right side up.
Any idea, like, is that is sort of the slight conceit of this year's show. So rail. We got rail out there. Desdemona. Desdemona Ross. Amazing spoken word artist, compass teacher, winner of many awards.
She is creating a spoken word piece called My Left Leg.
Hua MUA is a Hmong comedian, hilarious person who I'm actually working with right now, helping her hone some material for the show.
Her piece is called The Art of Ranting, which she's very good at.
AJ. Isaacson Zwidzwa is a musician doing a piece called Soliloquy for Solo Viola.
Tessa Longshore, who I think is here right somewhere.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: She is not with us.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Oh, she's not with us. No.
Sorry about that. She's somewhere. I bet.
She is doing dance piece called Strangers salvation secular. OOH, that's cool. I hadn't heard that title till now. Scott Sorensen, who was in the show last year and did this gorgeous piece, I think, called Brain.
And yeah, this year he is doing a piece called I am not your Expectations. He does puppetry, but also puppetry blended with storytelling and visuals and sort of wonderful kind of reassociating spoken word as well.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: Great.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: And then young dance. Beautiful, gorgeous young dance.
The members of the all abilities dance class are creating a piece collaboratively.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Great.
All right. Well, thank you. Well, I'm going to jump to Young Dance because we have Gabriel in here, and we have Lexi, and we have who am I missing? We have Galen. Galen. Thank you. Galen.
Galen and Lexi. And Gabriel. So I'd like each of you to tell me briefly your story of how you came to Young Dance. Who wants to go first?
Gabriel. I knew you would. Thank you. Go ahead.
[00:16:00] Speaker C: I can go first.
Yeah. I came to Young Dance a couple years ago.
I was connected to the organization through a friend of mine who I had been dancing with for a production I put together.
And I met with a couple people from Young Dance and heard they were doing an all abilities class. And it was around the time where I was becoming really a lot more interested in dance because I'm mostly a musician, but kind of found my way into dance. And they invited me to be an assistant teacher in the class.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: And yeah, without even seeing any of my work, they were pretty excited to have me, which could have gone badly on their part, but so far it's been pretty good.
And then just last year, Gretchen, the executive director and the main teacher for the class, invited me to start co teaching with her because we had such a good time the first year, and I guess she liked me and my ideas.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Excellent. Always good to have your ideas liked.
[00:17:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: So how long have you been there again?
[00:17:27] Speaker C: This is my third year.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Excellent.
[00:17:30] Speaker C: With young dance.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So Lexi is in the hot seat. Now. Lexi, how did you come to Young dance?
[00:17:39] Speaker D: Well, I came to Young Dance about nine years ago, I think.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Wow.
Just a kid.
[00:17:48] Speaker D: Just a kid. I was like, 13, I think.
So I've been with Young Dance for a pretty long time.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: What made you want to do it?
[00:17:58] Speaker D: I really wanted to do dance.
I didn't care what kind of dance. I just wanted to do dance. And my dad's found Young Dance, and I have loved it ever since.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: What has been the thing that keeps you coming back to Young Dance?
[00:18:27] Speaker D: I think the people and being able to express myself through movement.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Yeah, that's pretty important, isn't it? And is there a favorite thing that you've done in Young Dance so far that has stood out for you?
[00:18:48] Speaker D: I think learning to spin my walker around.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:18:53] Speaker D: Lifting it off the ground and just spinning around.
[00:18:58] Speaker B: That's been pretty cool.
[00:19:00] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: Does it help kind of keep you toned as much as you can in.
[00:19:05] Speaker D: Shape, sort of like, physically? Yeah, I think so. I think it helps.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Have you met a lot of people through Young Dance?
[00:19:14] Speaker D: I have. Yeah.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: That in itself is worth something.
[00:19:18] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: So now, is there anything else you'd like to say about Young Dance?
[00:19:27] Speaker D: It's really changed my life, and I don't think I'd be the same person if I hadn't joined.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Galen.
[00:19:40] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Get into that mic there.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Talk to me about young dance. How did you stumble in there?
[00:19:48] Speaker E: Well, I've been a part of Young Dance for like a month.
This is my first season.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: So you're a baby?
[00:19:57] Speaker E: I'm just a baby dancer.
I realized last time I danced in any kind of organized way was probably 30 years ago when I was in high school and I saw Lexi and the rest of her class dance at the Young Dance spring show in May. And I was like, that looks like so much fun. I want to do that. And then I was like, wait, I could do that. And so I talked to Lexi and her folks and was like, hey, I want to go to dance class with Lexi.
So, yeah, I just joined. And now I'm like, oh, I guess I'm going to be on stage dancing for the first time in 30 years, I guess.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: That's that's so cute. It's like a sibling. I want to go too.
[00:20:40] Speaker E: I want to go too. Lexi, you're doing the fun thing that looks fun. You're spinning your walker around. And I am also a disabled person and a care worker, and I've been thinking about wanting to go to dance, do some kind of dance, but wasn't sure how to access dance that would work for my body and that could work for my body when my body is different some days than other days. I really appreciate that I can show up to class. However, it is that I am that day and move however my body can move that day.
And the people are great.
I just love being in disability community and it's great to be in disability community, to be making art together. And we're all just dancers when we're there.
We're all just figuring out how to move our bodies together in ways that feel good. And that's a pretty great thing to get to do.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
So you've just been there a month, something like that?
[00:21:36] Speaker E: I don't know, whenever we started, just a couple.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Is there anything that you are hoping you get to do that you haven't done yet?
[00:21:44] Speaker E: Oh, I don't know.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Or what do you hope Young Dance gives you?
[00:21:49] Speaker E: I think moving my body regularly is great, but I think more than that, it's really just getting to be in community and make art with other disabled folks, that's what excites me. And just like, what kind of cool stuff we can come up with to do that can change the way people think about who we are and how we relate and who we are in community.
I think it can watching our class dance, I think can shift people's perceptions.
And I'm excited to get to be part of that.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: And I should ask you, Gabriel, what do you want to get from Young Dance? Like, what is it you get that keeps you coming back there?
[00:22:30] Speaker C: Yeah, I think kind of similar to what Galen was saying while you were talking about that. I was thinking of a couple moments during the last class, the last couple classes where I'm inside the movement, I'm inside moving with everybody. And then I take a moment and step back and look at the whole room and I just see these people and these bodies, like with complete and full agency and just looking alive and free and kind of moving through the world, the able bodied world. And then coming into this class, there's this sort of relief that kind of comes over you where it's like, dang, I can just be here. Like, I don't have to be something else. I don't have to try to do things that I can't do. I can just and I think that's why I keep going back and that's what I keep looking for.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: And Gabriel, I want you to because this is a global show. So some people, they come in like, who is Young Dance? I have no idea. Tell us a little about young dance? Like, who are they? They are a special. I mean, it's not just at any dance group.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: Yeah, so my three years at Young Dance, I've learned it mostly to be a dance program for young people from ages three to 17.
And they do a lot of they have jazz and modern and hip hop and these sort of normal dance classes.
But then Gretchen, the executive director, started this All Abilities class. I don't know when, but has kind of taken to using that class and the things she's learned from that class and other programs that she's taken classes with or done research with and using the all abilities class as a philosophy to move every other class through. So every class kind of operates the same way.
People in the all abilities classes are invited to dance in hip hop or ballet or modern, and those classes are teaching dance through a lens of all abilities.
And so that's how I've kind of come to understand young dance. And I could read go find their mission and stuff, but that's how I understand it.
[00:25:29] Speaker B: Gotcha.
I want to talk a little bit about disability justice specifically. I'll start with you, Amy, for off kilter. What does disabilities justice do you think mean to off kilter?
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. So disability justice is a step past accessibility.
Disability justice is a social justice movement like civil rights, like women's rights, that focuses on examining disability and ableism as they are in our culture and on trying to move our society towards a sense of change that is about changing what's in the outside world, not changing people with disabilities. So I was just going to say that everything that Galen and Gabriel have said about young dance, that is disability justice. The way that they just talked about how this dance class allows dancers to show up as they are, where they are in their bodies, with what their bodies can do that day, and to create art and dance out. Of that state right there, as opposed to a dance instructor snapping her whip and telling the class I don't understand why you're not working harder. Why can't you do this plie you did it yesterday.
That would not be disability justice. That would be trying to change the dancers, trying to expect something of them that their bodies were maybe never meant to do or can't do that day. So disability justice says that disability is everywhere. This shouldn't be the other.
This is something that is endemic to the human race. We have all different bodies that do all different things and that are going to change moment by moment. Let's make a world that sees that and accepts it and celebrates it and creates right from that state, believing that that state is the state that any person should be in instead of trying to twist people into a mold that they may never succeed in.
So an example would be my extremely botched description of Scott Sorensen that I offered up earlier. So Scott lives with autism and how he makes puppet shows is exactly how he should be making puppet shows.
And the beauty of his form of communication and what he sees and what he wants to communicate, that is art right there. He doesn't need to dislike the way that he is right now to try to put himself in a model that we have defined as what theater and puppetry should be. We can change that model. We can say, no.
That's a random judgment that we've made. That's a set of rules for the theater that are antiquated, that we don't have to follow anymore. Who says we have to use that definition here's? This beautiful piece of work that everyone could enjoy and see themselves in and learn from. Let's decide that that is theater right now, as it should be.
Disability justice. Says who? Says that an audience needs to be made up of this kind of theater patron or needs to watch a piece that has a fourth wall that isn't broken?
Who says an audience has to be dead silent? That that is the way we appreciate theater?
What if we said, hey, people are allowed to make noise. People are allowed to shout things out.
People are allowed to respond to art because art is supposed to move you. Art is supposed to move you and stimulate you to want to be part of the show or participate or feel your own emotions.
So this shows up everywhere.
The Americans with Disabilities Act started with the idea of public spaces being accessible, of creating curb cuts and offering ASL interpretation or IEP programs in schools. But that was the tip of the iceberg. We can go so much farther past that, into not just accessibility, but far deeper inclusion that honors all humans and accepts them where they are. That honors the idea of human diversity and humanity.
[00:30:55] Speaker B: Do you feel like this is different than disability ability?
[00:31:00] Speaker A: I'm not sure what that phrase means.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: I don't know if I do either.
I guess all abilities, right, are in the I think this is like one.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Notch past that into celebrating even more radically the idea that if we were really going to say what I hope this means, I want it to mean that there's no such thing as disability. That there is just a continuum. There's a continuum of human bodies and what they do, human brains and what they're capable of, human emotions and who has them when.
And all of that is human diversity.
We've taken diversity and we've gradated it and put those little gradations into boxes. And eventually, on one end of that scale there's you're not normal anymore. And I want that erased.
Last year, I had seen Young Dance before last year's, off kilter Cabaret, but not in a really long time. And when I watched Young Dance's pieces last year, i, like, flipped out.
Everything Dalen said is exactly what I experienced. Like, oh, I want to do that. Oh, my God. Can I do that? I don't know. Wait, I guess I could do that. I'm not doing it because I'm really lazy.
But the beauty, the absolute beauty of seeing that degree of diversity on stage and seeing a piece that these dancers generated together that came out of who they were, and that was gorgeous. That was beautiful. That was mesmerizing. There were moments where it looked like a human lava lamp. I just love that.
And I was like, I want to see this all the time.
No offense to the world of ballet. Ballet is absolutely valid. There is nothing wrong with it.
Nothing happens for me when I see tiny women with buns, pure weddings.
I am sure that other people have a deep reaction to that. I don't. But I had a deep reaction to these wonderful undulating movements and stage pictures that were formed with the members of Young Dance and how they related to each other and the combinations of sound and movement and the way that they moved closer and then unfolded like plants blooming. And I loved that. And I feel like, what could this do for other audience members? Where else are their audience members not seeing anything that touches them when they watch something on stage? And how many people could have that spark of, oh, there's people who look like me and they're dancing and they're real dancers and they're in a real dance company. That could be in my future, too, or even just I never get to see people who look like me or move like me on stage. And now I am.
That is what off kilter wants to bring to this city, is the opportunity for people on stage and in the audience to connect and validate each other and say, yes, this is art. We're art. We are making it, and we are gradually going to change the world.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Gabe, can you tell me why Young Dance decided to be a partner with the off kilter Cabaret?
[00:35:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm actually going to read this off because Gretchen sent something and I wasn't the one who made that decision.
So this is coming from Gretchen Pick, the executive director.
We believe it is really important to make sure that dance with disabilities I'm sorry. Dancers with disabilities are visible in our community. And so we do focus on performance within our all abilities programming. And we do so on focusing I'm sorry. And so we do focus on performance within our all abilities programming by making the assumptions and stereotypes I'm sorry. By making sure that dancers with disabilities are visible. We want to change the assumptions and stereotypes of who dances. Everyone is expressive with their bodies. Everyone makes expressive movement. Everybody dances.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: Excellent. Lexi, can you tell me a little bit about your disability and how it's changed and how Young Dances changed how you feel about that?
[00:36:30] Speaker D: Well, I have suffered from a head injury, which has affected my balance and memory.
So when I first joined Young Dance, I didn't use a wheelchair or sorry, I didn't use a walker or a cane. And then after my head injury, I started using a cane, and then it just sort of got worse over time. So then I eventually moved to using a walker. And over all of that time, I've learned to try new things with what I can do and yeah, sorry, I'm losing my train of thought.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: No, that's okay.
[00:37:37] Speaker C: Can I say something?
[00:37:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:39] Speaker C: It's been cool to watch Lexi.
I've only known Lexi for about almost three years now, but I remember just was it last class? No, it was two classes ago where you came with an idea of like, hey, what if we did this with my walker?
And I think, yeah, that's what this class and what we're doing kind of gives opportunity for, is to explore.
I use a wheelchair, so sometimes I'm curious about, well, how can we use the wheelchair to explore movement and dance together? And I think that's what we've been kind of curious about with where Lexi's at and starting to use this walker and how can we incorporate that more into the movement and the pieces that we make and the exercises that we do.
It's been kind of exciting, I would say.
[00:38:43] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: And Galen or Gabriel, do you have thoughts on disability justice for Young Dance?
[00:38:51] Speaker E: Yeah, I can speak to that some.
I've done lots of political disability work. I've done less arts disability work and have had lots of deep thinking conversations about the meaning of disability justice and the ten principles and all that. And I think there's something extra we get to do when we're creating art inside of the framework of disability justice. And it makes sense because the folks who came up with the principles of disability justice were artists from Sins Invalid in the Bay Area, who sort of developed the ten principles of disability justice and started shifting from sort of a disability rights framework to a disability a more broad and more radical disability justice framework.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: I did not know that.
[00:39:32] Speaker E: Yeah, so I think it makes sense that art is a really powerful way to practice disability justice and to bring in some of those principles. And that's definitely been my experience so far in Young Dance. Is it's just a place where we're definitely practicing things like interdependence and recognizing all of our wholeness and collective access and collective liberation, which are all some of the principles of disability justice. And we just see that in class every time, where we just sort of show up with our full bodies and figure out how we move together and how we express ourselves. And with this piece in particular that's like, inside out, outside in, we've been really playing with, like, what does it feel like on the inside and bringing that outside and getting to we don't talk a ton in class. Right. Not everybody in class uses words to communicate. And so there's this really powerful way that we get to know each other through our bodies and get to really practice a really radical politic without even talking about it.
[00:40:41] Speaker B: Almost like totally intimate.
[00:40:43] Speaker E: It's very intimate. Yeah. I think a lot of what Mia Mingus calls access intimacy, I see that happening in our class all. The like it's just sort of like, oh, okay, that person is kind of wandering off from the class. So we just like, somebody goes over and engages that person, and we bring back in, and then that person's now in the center of the circle, and we're all moving around them. And so it's like there's a way that everybody's just kind of always looking out for everybody else while also expressing it's just I think it's a really beautiful expression of sort of like the root of where disability justice kind of grew out of with the artists in the Bay Area.
[00:41:23] Speaker B: How many people are in the piece that's coming up for Young Dance for the Cabaret?
[00:41:29] Speaker C: Let's see, 12345. I believe there's close to ten of us.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: And Galen and Lexi, are you both in that?
[00:41:39] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: Excellent. Okay, good. Well, and talk a little bit about if you can without giving too much away about that piece.
[00:41:52] Speaker C: Yeah, so me and Gretchen kind of started developing the piece using just prompts and exercises in class, and it really came from the ground up. It was like, let's try this and see what happens, and let's try this. And we it was a lot of just exploration, and we didn't really start with, like, we want to make a piece about this.
It was like, let's move and see what feels good. Because I think the whole concept of the show Inside, Outside, Inside Out is like, this question of what does it feel like on the inside. I think that was something that came up in our classes, in our rehearsals, is just like, we move, and when we move, we move.
That's our expression of what's happening on the inside. So we found this question of what does it feel like on the inside? And we started to sort of base our piece off of that and tried to not only ask the question of individuals, but try to show that as a group and as a sort of community, we can express ourselves as one sort of amalgamation of humans and see what happens when we all move together. Because we're almost like when we're moving, this sort of access intimacy, you said it almost becomes this consciousness sort of. And we kind of explored these ideas of space and orbiting and gravity and reacting to each other, and it feels very cosmic, but also brain synapses.
I don't know. That's kind of where we went from. It's hard to put our piece into words because it is so nonverbal and feeling based and movement based, but that's kind of how we went about it.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: Well, this will be an interesting piece. There is audio description in the Cabaret people, so all of you locals who want to see and hear if you are visually impaired can come and catch some audio description of each show. That would be great. Is there anything you want to leave us with in regards to young dance.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I think jumping off the conversation of disability justice, I think I have a spinal cord injury. So I had an injury when I was 15 and I became disabled in a really traumatic and really fast way. And it's been 15 years since my injury and it's been really pretty deeply transformational coming into this class and understanding what we use the term disability. But I think it's more like what bodies are.
And I've learned so much from this class and these students and the research that Gresham has done over the years about what it just means to be a body and to move and to relate.
And I think it really ties into that conversation about disability justice. And we have this sort of political idea of disability justice and its accessibility and its assimilation, but there's something so much deeper and broader and more profound in sort of just existing and being a body in the world. And I think I'm learning a lot about that in this class.
It's really been beautiful and has made me feel kind of more fondly about my disability and my body.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: That can be a tough thing.
[00:46:40] Speaker C: It has been.
We use a lot of negative words when we talk about disability, like, you know, how severe is it?
It's getting worse.
I still believe those things and like, I there there are a lot of times where I long for the able body that I had.
I don't think that's ever going to go away. Right.
But I can do both. I can long, I can grieve, but I can also be and feel excited and alive and grateful for what I do have and what I may lose.
Who knows?
[00:47:27] Speaker B: Thank you, Gabe. I need to take one more station break and we'll be right back for the end.
[00:47:33] Speaker F: We all want the best for our kids, and that starts with keeping them healthy. Your child needs a health check every year. If your child is under 21 and on medical assistance. Hennepin County Child and Teen Checkups can help you schedule your child's medical and dental appointments, provide transportation and more, all at no cost. Schedule now by calling 6125-4322 or visit hennepin us checkups. Residents outside Hennepin County should contact their county health department.
[00:48:18] Speaker B: Three FM. Minneapolis and Kfai.org. You're listening to disability and progress. My name is Sam Amy. I wonder if you could give us a rundown again of when the off kilter cabaret is happening, how we get tickets and the address.
Do you know that The Times which shows are audio described and which ones are ASL?
[00:48:43] Speaker A: That's the piece that I forgot to say that I was hoping you would ask about. So all performances will include audio description and ASL interpretation. All three and then captioning will be provided at the Saturday performance.
So captioning at just one performance, but audio description and ASL at all of them, there will be post show discussions on Saturday and Sunday. And I am positive that any audience member who has questions or needs further accommodation or wants to work out other kinds of accommodation could talk to Paul and Jennifer. I will also say, and I shouldn't say this because I don't know it for sure, but I suspect that because we recorded the show last year, that we'll probably record this year's show. And if there is somebody in Madagascar or Bavaria who would like to see the show who couldn't because they don't live here, I bet we could find a way to show them.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
See me later. I have some ideas left out.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Right? Okay, so the rundown of dates and times.
So November 17 through the 19th. Friday, Saturday, Sunday at the Tech Box Theater in the Coal Center in downtown Minneapolis fifth and Hennepin Avenue in downtown.
Friday and Saturday, November 17 and 18th. The show is at 07:30 p.m.. Sunday, the show is at 02:00 p.m.. And tickets and lots more information is are available at www.offleasharea.org. No punctuation for offleash area. O-F-F-L-E-A-S-H-A-R-E-A. Offleash area also has Facebook page and we started putting lots of photos and info from off kilter up there as well.
[00:50:51] Speaker B: Charlene, is there anything you'd like to leave with saying to any of the group?
[00:50:56] Speaker D: No, I really learned a lot from these guys. It's kind of interesting about how your body is.
[00:51:04] Speaker B: You yeah.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: Well, Gabriel, you cry.
That was so beautiful. And my disabilities are getting worse rapidly, and I'm going through a lot of some of the stuff that you just talked about, that duality of I'm going to find a way to be happy. I am going to find a way to be okay with this.
[00:51:30] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think there's this like I don't know, there's this sort of I think when we talk about disability justice and this Mecca or this kingdom of heaven of the day when everybody will disability won't even be a concept anymore.
Yeah, we can get there, but let's not be afraid to still be able to grieve and feel bad and feel long for more ability.
I was just having a conversation with somebody the other day. Actually, it was my therapist, and we were talking about this and we were talking about ableism and how it's such an oppressive structure.
And I'm thinking about taking some action towards some more curative therapies toward my spinal cord injury. But anyways, there are things that I can't do that don't really have to do with Ableism. Like I can't orgasm or I can't go put my feet in the dirt and feel the cold ground between my toes. Those are things that I deeply, deeply long for and probably won't ever have again.
But then there are things like ramps and elevators and there are accessibility, things that can make my life so much easier that I don't have access to right now. Right those access needs.
So it's a real paradox to live with a disability, and I don't want to get too toxic positivity about it.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: You want to be real?
[00:53:40] Speaker C: You want to be real. Yes.
[00:53:41] Speaker B: I get it.
[00:53:42] Speaker A: And we contain multitudes, and we can have multiple emotions at one time. Absolutely.
We can work towards feeling better and acceptance and empowerment, and we can also grieve and swear and take that.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: Well, we have to wrap it up, but I want to thank you all for being on. Amy Saloway and Gabriel Roderick.
Did I say that right?
[00:54:12] Speaker C: Gabriel roderick.
[00:54:13] Speaker B: Roderick I did, yes. Oh, yay. Both from Off Kilter and Gabriel from Young Dance as well as well as Lexi Samara and Galen Smith. Thank you all for being on. I really appreciate the time that you spent educating everyone about you and what's coming up with Off Kilter.
[00:54:35] Speaker E: Thanks for having us.
[00:54:36] Speaker C: Thanks, Sam.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: Yes, thank you very much. And this has been disability and progress.
Views expressed on this show are not necessarily those of Kfbi or its board of directors. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Charlene Dahl is my research woman.
Erin is my podcaster. Thank you, Erin. And we have been speaking this week with Gabriel Roderick, Amy Saloway Samara sorry, Lexi Samara and Ailen Smith. All from both Young Dance and also some from off Kilter. My name is Sam of the Hoku Show. If you want to be on my email list, you can email me at
[email protected]. And next week, please stay tuned for a discussion and a topic on breast cancer, a topic that should be discussed every day.
KPI.
