Bodies in Commotion is the first book to explore the lively intersection of performance studies and disability studies, provoking new ways of looking at body, space, spectatorship, and identity. In this groundbreaking collection, leading critics, artists, and activists take on topics that range from theater and dance to multimedia performance art, agit-prop, American Sign Language theater, and wheelchair sports. The multiple perspectives illustrate how disabled bodies are "bodies in commotion"—bodies that dance across artistic and discursive boundaries, challenging our understanding of both disability and performance. Bodies in Commotion exposes for the first time the mutually interpretive qualities of these two emerging fields, making this a unique, dynamic new resource for artists, activists, and scholars.
"Bodies in Commotion is a testament to the synergy that can build within the interstices of two evolving fields. From the analysis of performance texts to the study of staged performances to examinations of the performing body in everyday life, this book demonstrates the enormous profitability of moving beyond disability as metaphor and the actorly strategies for "playing disabled". It's a lesson that many of our cultural institutions desperately need to learn."
—Martin F. Norden, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Winner: 2006 Best Book Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
Copyright © 2005, University of Michigan. All rights reserved.
