Before Sunday, it had been more than five years since DanceAbility founder Alito Alessi led a workshop in Eugene, what with all his world-traveling and Guggenheim Fellowship-winning. He has not slowed down work for his Eugene-based organization during that time, just focused his energies on spreading the work to dozens of other countries.
Because a few of the people he has trained keep an active schedule and live here, there is always an opportunity for this sort of program in town — it’s just that Alessi himself had not taught here in a while.
That changed on Sunday, when Alessi led a group of nearly 20 people of varying physical abilities in a workshop that did not contain a single prompt that everyone in the class could not complete.
“Everything works for everyone, always,” Alessi said. “That’s the goal for the class.”
During the almost three-hour session at the WOW Hall, Alessi spoke in deliberate language he has developed to teach workshops that he customizes based on who is participating that day.
“This is a movement class for every body,” Alessi told the group. “Everything is possible for every body. Aesthetic is not relevant. Intention and experience is what’s relevant.”
DanceAbility — which seeks to find common ground for creative expression for people of all physical abilities through performance, educational programs, teacher training and workshops — concludes its 25th anniversary celebration with an online silent auction that runs through today. It already has raised more than $3,500. Sunday’s workshop was part of the celebration, as was a DanceAbility informational film and discussion at the Eugene Public Library.
On Sunday, each student had the chance at the beginning of the workshop to share any injuries, physical limitations or preferences for interaction prior to group activities.
Everyone who arrived in a wheelchair was comfortable with others using their chairs if they vacated them — so not only did those who rely on wheelchairs get to experience the freedom of exploring their own movements and space without the chair, dancers for whom walking comes easily were able to experience dance in wheelchairs.
More than two decades ago, Alessi, a contemporary dancer, heard much talk about equality and democracy in dance, but when he looked around, he felt no one was doing it. No choreography was designed for anyone other than dancers with two legs, two arms and all their physical attributes working in a “normal” way.
His Eugene dance company started working with all dancers and instantly found successful outreach among physically limited people, Alessi said before Sunday’s workshop.
Alessi said his methodology is applicable to a range of people, because it’s about teaching them how to understand their bodies, stay in the moment and be in community with each other — regardless of their abilities. One goal is to avoid isolation.
If you have a movement pattern, it is a habit and therefore not established in the present moment, he said. DanceAbility leaders give verbal cues encouraging people to stay present and aware of how different movements feel.
“Move however you want, making movements that feel good to your body,” Alessi said during the warm-up Sunday. “Make your own movements. Allow your body to speak. If your mind goes away from your body for any reason, ask it to return.”
Before people paired off, Karen Daly worked the floor on her own, moving with graceful ease, her left foot providing balance for certain horizontal movements, and expression for others. With her chest on the floor, she swept her arms up and down like a bird, then rolled on her side, swept both arms toward her leg in a tucked position before quickly uncoiling again.
As the workshop progressed, Alessi built new ideas on the ones that came before, working in pairs, then quads, then the whole group coming together to make an “image.” They played with speeds, challenging themselves to consider the speed they impulsively wanted to move in, and then choose another.
During one demonstration, someone’s cell phone went off, with the ring tone playing a country song. Alessi simply improvised. He did not intentionally introduce music into the workshop until more than an hour after it started.
If someone who cannot move without assistance was in a group, Alessi reminded the others not to make that person the center of all the action, and that they needed constantly to be in relationship to everyone else in the group.
The youngest participant, Shanti Morrell, 11, spent a lot of time giggling during the workshop. When asked why, she said it was “more fun than awkward.” She had seen choreographed performances by DanceAbility in the past, she explained, and wanted to try it for herself.
Shanti has Kniest dysplasia, a rare genetic disorder, and said she experiences ups and downs — sometimes needing a cane, sometimes a walker, other times a wheelchair and other times no assistance at all.
“I learned sometimes it’s interesting to work with people who can’t speak and you don’t know what they want,” she said. “You have to create ways to communicate with them.”
Daly, who also is a trained DanceAbility instructor, needed to leave early and started scooting for the door before Alessi asked her where her wheelchair was.
“I forgot I had one,” said Daly, who has one leg. “That’s the sign of a good workshop.”
DANCEABILITY INTERNATIONAL
Silent auction fundraiser: Ends today, see danceabilityinternational.blogspot.com/
Upcoming classes: Celeste Peterson and Emery Blackwell, certified DanceAbility teachers, teach a class called Cirque-Elation Dance Improvisation at the Reach Center, 2520 Harris St., every first and third Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
More information: 541-342-3273 or www.danceability.com/
