A couple of weeks ago, after coming out of the magnificent, overwhelmingly beautiful and deeply moving dance performance by Compagnie Marie Chouinard, in which the dancers used metal crutches and walkers as part of their dance, my friend who accompanied me asked: “Do you think someone who had a real disability would be offended by this dance?”
Quite possibly. It would depend on the person’s relationship to their disability. Some people are comfortable with their handicaps. Some people wear their illnesses and handicaps as a badge. To others, it is such an insult that the relationship is more of anger or shame. But the dance itself elevated the possibilities of human bodies, realigned the misuse, disuse, abuse of limbs to a level of unlimited beauty.
In A Million Little Pieces, James Frey quotes a Taoist saying that helped him through his difficult times recovering from addictions:
If you want to be whole, you must first be partial. If you want to be straight, you must first be crooked. If you want to be full, first become empty. If you want to be reborn, you must first die. If you want everything give everything up. If you don’t display yourself, people will see your light. If you have nothing to prove, people will trust you. If you don’t try to be something, people will see themselves in you. If you don’t have a goal, you will always succeed.
The first dancers came on the stage with one toe shoe on one foot, the other foot bare. And hobbled across the stage. At another time, toe shoes were on the hands as well, a four foot walk on point. Or dancers scooted across the stage leaning into a walker. And all with magnificent grace, displaying love for the human body in all its manifestations. If we could only feel that within ourselves every day, there would be no more prejudice. Life would be quite fine.