Katrina Carter Phd 2015
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Suspending Conventions: How ‘disabled aerialists’ are challenging aesthetic and methodological practices in 21st Century aerial(ism) Katrina Carter Royal Holloway University London PhD Thesis 2014 1 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Katrina Carter, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I consult the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: _________________________ Dated: _________________________ 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Libby Worth, secondary supervisor Jacky Bratton and advisor Colette Conroy for their astute and generous guidance throughout my research. I have received financial support at different stages so gratitude goes to: RHUL for travel grants to Barcelona and the USA; the Headley Pitt Trust for a new computer; Canterbury City Council and the Circus Space for co-funding Hang-ups! and Arts Council England for enabling my attendance at the Circus Educators Conference, 2014. I am indebted to Steve Gossard, Maureen Brunsdale and Mark Schmitt of the Bloomington Circus Archive, Milner Gallery at the Illinois State University; to Fred Dahlinger of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, and to Anna-Karyna Barlati at Montréal’s National Circus School library. All offered me extensive support in my search for historical ‘disabled aerialists’. Appreciation goes to my generous aerial friends and colleagues who were happy to share their aerial journeys with me. In addition I thank Jean-Marie Akkerman, Lyndsay Adams, Amelia Cavallo, Claire Cunningham, Penny Clapcott, Tiiu Mortley and Jenny Sealey as well as the aerialists I worked with in the Paralympic Opening Ceremony and Graeae’s productions. All helped guide me to a greater understanding of impairment and disability and how aerial can be an accessible art form. Particular thanks also go to Anton French and Sophie Partridge for co-creating Hang-ups!. I extend my thanks to Digby Carter, Amelia Cavallo, Colette Conroy, Pam Davey and Kate Lawrence who proof-read chapters at different stages of the research, though any remaining errors are of course mine. Finally, thank you to my good friends Lindsey Butcher, Jade and Dave Carter, Athene Lane-Martin and Sarah Walker-Down, and my family Digby Carter, Damian Carter, Jon Campion, Kim Carter, Pam Davey and especially Steve Taylor who have all listened to my ramblings and offered their support throughout my research. 3 Abstract Aerial(ism) is the art of suspended movement, generated by aerialists working with equipment such as trapezes, ropes and harnesses. It is frequently but not exclusively associated with the circus and throughout its history has been dominated by non-disabled performers. Increasing numbers of disabled artists are however, now engaging with aerial. This thesis therefore examines how ‘disabled aerialists’ are challenging aesthetic and methodological aerial practices in the twenty-first century. As a professional aerialist working extensively with disabled performers, the research draws on my practice and direct correspondence with other disabled and non-disabled practitioners. It features two case studies in which I was aerial choreographer and trainer: Hang-ups!, a short film featuring Sophie Partridge who performs in a fabric cocoon and the Paralympic Opening Ceremony of London 2012 which included more than twenty ‘disabled aerialists’ using diverse aerial equipment. Historical and cultural perspectives of aerial are drawn from the few academic experts in the field, notably Paul Bouissac, Steve Gossard and Peta Tait; disability perspectives are guided by a wealth of theorists including Erving Goffman, P. David Howe, Tom Shakespeare and Rosemarie Garland Thomson. The research shows how aerial has been connected to disability and/or impairment throughout its history. It provides evidence that ‘disabled aerialists’ existed in the past but have been forgotten, despite at least one unipedal aerialist contributing significantly to what Tait calls the ‘living history’ of the form. It demonstrates how twenty-first century ‘disabled aerialists’ offer significant opportunities to alter the form’s increasing aesthetic of conformity, but that challenges continue to exist in both how this can be done, and how the work might be understood. 4 I see myself reflected in the mirror, and I say to Tina, “I look big!” Big. Substantial. Filling the space. In other mirrors too, when just myself, I fill that space. It is only when a mirror’s window is shared with another that I become small, yet today with Tina, myself suspended, we are both big in the world, the reflection does not diminish me. We share an equal presence. Well, this is a duet after all! And the music is the motion of the air, the singing is our breath, film will be our reflection, our window to the ground. Seismic shifts mirrored in space. (Partridge in Hang-ups!) 5 Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 3 Abstract ................................................................................................................................... 4 Acronyms ................................................................................................................................. 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 9 Conventions of Suspension: on Remembering and Forgetting .........................................10 Conjoined Histories of the ‘Disabled Aerialist’..................................................................18 Disability: Language and Theory ......................................................................................28 The Social Circus: Appropriate Participation ....................................................................36 Research Methodologies .................................................................................................39 Chapter Summaries .........................................................................................................47 Chapter 1: The Physical Fundamentals of Aerial ......................................................................50 Aerial Lineage in the UK ...................................................................................................50 Canonical Equipment and Movement Vocabularies .........................................................53 Exploring the ‘Kinetic Museum’ .......................................................................................71 Chapter 2: The Conventional Aerial Aesthetics ........................................................................79 Muscular Athleticism .......................................................................................................79 The Myth of Defying Gravity ............................................................................................85 The Reality of Risk ...........................................................................................................87 The Superhumans or Social Misfits ..................................................................................90 Pain-free Performances of Control ..................................................................................95 Reactions to Aerial ..........................................................................................................99 Chapter 3: Re-Situating the ‘Disabled Aerialist’ ......................................................................104 Permission to Look ........................................................................................................106 Disability Arts & Culture ................................................................................................112 The Circus of Isolation ...................................................................................................122 Heterogeneous ‘Disabled Aerialists’ ..............................................................................126 Chapter 4: Hang-Ups! or Here’s to the No-Can-Dos ...............................................................145 Hang-ups! The Movie ....................................................................................................145 Here’s to the Aerial No-Can-Dos ....................................................................................149 The Minimisation of Movement ....................................................................................151 The Professional Assistant .............................................................................................154 Participation and/or Excellence .....................................................................................159 Performance Texts ........................................................................................................165 Risky Performance .........................................................................................................167 6 Initial Conclusions..........................................................................................................169 Chapter 5: The Paralympic Ceremonies .................................................................................172 The Paralympic Movement ............................................................................................173 The Paralympic Aerial Training Programme ...................................................................180