New Dance Piece Creation
This project is an exciting dance choreography that explores relationships between people with disabilities and fully-able people. The piece will be developed and choreographed by Dalmas Otieno who is a person with disability having lost one leg at the hip.
According to Dalmas, everybody wants to love and be loved right back, be it with family or friends. As someone who has grown with disabilities, he constantly experiences the tensions and even stigma that emerges when a disabled person enters into a romantic relationship with a fully-able person.
The greater majority of people with disabilities fear expressing themselves romantically to able bodied" people for obvious reason: fear of rejection. On the other hand, "able bodied" people also have the same fear of loving people living with disabilities with the biggest fear not being rejection but the reaction they will receive from family and friends.
In this dance piece, four dancers (2 with disability and 2 able bodied) will narrate a story of love that is too hard to confess but after realizing that there is nothing to lose they decide to give it a try. In this piece, wheelchair dance will dominate the stage and having dancers who have used wheelchairs all their life and thus they bring out their story in an elaborate manner that will leave the audience stunned and thrilled.
Dalmas is 28 years old male person living with disabilities. He has been a contemporary dance artist for the last seven years with Pamoja Dance Group and even performed at international stages in France and Australia. He is also a truly versatile individual being a swimmer for the Kenya Paralympics team, a footballer playing for Nairobi Amputee Football Club and Kenya National Amputee Team, He is also a cyclist and a motivational speaker.
Other arrators/dancers
Peris njeri
Carol Wanjira/ Beatrice Wambui
Billy