LOVE YOURSELF IN RODNEY BELL’S UPCOMING WORKSHOP
Universability Dance Journey Hey, everyone! My name is Eden Amital and I’m juiced to be an intern for Sins Invalid this summer!
I am thrilled to be working as support for Rodney Bell’s August 2014 workshop, Universability Dance Journey. I trained in ballet and modern 17+ hours a week during high school: I know and love the joy that is movement. This year, my chronic pain and fatigue and my emerging identity as a disabled person has forced me to move away from dance as I knew it, and is allowing me to think about movement and dance in new and transformative ways. I’m not saying that physical changes aren’t deeply painful at times. I am saying that we can dream together what accessible and joyous movement can be.For years, Rodney Bell’s work has fused disability community and dance together. A dancer of Maori Descent who uses a manual wheelchair for mobility and his culture for spiritual guidance, Rodney has worked with the world’s leading mixed ability dance companies. He was in the 2008 Sins Invalid performance — and folks loved it!Join Rodney at “Sin’s Central”, August 2-3, where, in his words, we “will attend closely to the rhythms of our own heart beats and mind, as this is where all intentional movement is born from to dance. We will prowl our experiences, sensations, freedoms, and collectively discover that dance is a way of relating, greeting, and remembering. We will share present and past through and from our bodies, and supported by rituals from my Maori Culture, and with sound – from instruments, voice and stories – we will create dance which is responsive to the inner and outer changes in each moment. There is no demand cloud over Universability Dance Journey so it’s not about ability, it’s about thisability. From this priceless understanding we can start to live a Dance we wish to create, and not the Dance prescribed for us by fear and expectation.” Each day, as we create community together, we will share a meal. This workshop is free for participants.Feedback from Rodney Bell’s last workshop with Sins Invalid:— “Thank you for sharing your work and your culture, and making a safe place for me to play and express myself.”— “The music, energy and intention was definitely felt — many thanks!”— “Thank you for sharing your power, grace, and heart. You remind us to love ourselves just as we are.”
About the artist:Rodney Bell is of Maori Descent, from the Ngati Maniapoto Tribe, Aotearoa (New Zealand). He is internationally recognized for contemporary modern dance style that combines people with and without physical disabilities. His artistic expression demonstrates elements of traditional Maori culture, yet at the same time he's continually seeking new ways to enhance his creative process. He has been dancing professionally since 1994. He began as a founding member of Touch Compass Dance Trust, which is an internationally renowned physically integrated dance company based in Auckland, New Zealand.
He has increasingly worked across all forms of media, including film, commercials, modeling, and fashion catwalks. He teaches dance to all peoples through workshops and dance intensives. Rodney wants to continually work from self expression and support processes that allow possibilities to those communities that are labeled by ableism and accessibility and this is where Rodney feels all personal expectations are fulfilled.HE WAKA EKE NOA – MAURI ORA– a canoe which we are all in with no expectations – Life’s force –