Of all the art forms, dance - you might imagine - would be the one someone with a physical disability should avoid. Why go there? Why participate in a creative activity whose central core is about flexible joints and loose limbs ready to take on supple, lithe and graceful movements as the choreography demands? Yet, pushing out the boundaries of possibility - and acceptability - is an integral part of artistic expression. And it is into this space that CandoCo, one of the world's leading integrated contemporary dance companies fits. "I would like to drop the word 'integrated' at some point. We see ourselves as a professional mainstream contemporary dance company, but we can't avoid the label. In fact, we have to learn from it," says Celeste Dandeker, artistic director of CandoCo, speaking to The Irish Times from London during a short break in the current international tour.
As part of this tour, the seven dancers - four dancers with disabilities (two of whom use wheelchairs) and three able-bodied dancers - that make up CandoCo will perform in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar at 9 p.m. on July 12th and 13th. The pieces they will perform are I Hastened Through My Death Scene To Catch Your Last Act by London-based Venezuelan-Spanish choreographer Javier de Frutos, and Sunbyrne by American choreographer Doug Elkins. Both pieces by these highly acclaimed choreographers were written specifically for CandoCo.
The de Frutos piece was inspired by the works of Tennessee Williams. It has been described in a review in the Scotsman as "an emotional cocktail laced with loneliness and anguish". The central character is in a box, moving his upper body only while the other dancers move around him.
"Javier de Frutos describes him as a broken Apollo, and he was inspired by The Man with One Arm, a short story by Tennessee Williams," explains Dandeker. "The characters have great desire and longing. They are damaged people, but hope runs through the piece." Interestingly, it is one of the able-bodied dancers who plays the broken Apollo character.
The Doug Elkins piece is, by contrast, light and summery. The dancers are dressed in vivid orange, loose casualwear as they energetically move to the fast rhythms of music from David Byrne and the Talking Heads. Homage is duly paid to David Byrne in the title of the piece, Sunbyrne.
"It was of the most enjoyable dance-making experiences I've had, and I'm looking forward to seeing the piece in Dublin," says Elkins. "It was definitely a different challenge. I wasn't sure where we'd start from, but we found a vocabulary; and through improvisation, the work started to present itself in the process." Elkins's own dance company takes the slot just after CandoCo in the impressive programme of dance, theatre, opera and music in Temple Bar's Meeting House Square on summer nights throughout July and August.
Back to CandoCo and impressions from a preview video of their current programme. The two pieces couldn't be more dissimilar. The de Frutos piece is emotionally challenging to watch: raw, jerky at times, beautifully fragile. The Elkins piece is upbeat, fun and energetic. The wheelchairs are the most obvious accouterments of disability. And they are neither camouflaged nor used symbolically as part of the work. In fact, they are integrated into the performance as the dancers using them move around the stage or move their upper bodies from within them.
For the rest, members of the audience might find themselves doing a double-take on various moves during the performance. Watching the company perform part of Sunbyrne, I found myself absorbed by the rhythm and fast movement - only to realise moments later that one of the performers was missing a leg. Avoid the wow factor ("Isn't she amazing to be on stage?"), and you're on your way to enjoying a superb contemporary dance performance.
Disability isn't the focus of our work. It's other people's agenda to fit the disability thing around it," says Dandeker. A contemporary dancer herself who broke her neck after overbalancing on stage during a performance with the London Contemporary Dance Theatre in 1973, Dandeker set up CandoCo in 1991 with choreographer and teacher, Adam Benjamin.
"We were working together at an integrated sports and leisure centre, and we were watching basketball players in wheelchairs playing against each other. And Adam said, 'That isn't really integrated. Why don't we start a dance workshop which is?'"
CandoCo (literally: can-do company) grew out of that weekly workshop for dancers - both those with disabilities and those more "able-bodied".
As part of an early tour, CandoCo performed at the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College in 1994. Now, celebrating their 10th anniversary, Dandeker is thrilled with the international acclaim the company has received.
While disability itself is not the focus of CandoCo's work, the effects that can be achieved with the mix of able-bodied dancers and those with disabilities is. "We have a unique way of moving and a richer vocabulary. Our range of possibilities is wider," says Dandeker. Rather than following strict dancing techniques, CandoCo relies much more on improvisation.
"The dancers works to their own potential and go beyond it to explore their body language for themselves. We start very simply with duet exercises, and people are encouraged to create movement together. Dandeker stopped dancing herself two years ago to concentrate more on her role as director. The company members rehearse in their own purpose-built studio theatre in the ASPIRE training centre for spinal injuries in Stanmore, Middlesex. They hold workshops while on tour and run a summer school for students and teachers from all over the world.
"It's not about speed. It's about what's personal to you in movement and listening to each other physically," she explains. "Before my accident, my vision was as narrow as the next person's - you need two legs and arms that work to be a dancer. So I had to discover different ways of dancing myself. It is so exciting to create movement, and we are empowered by the fact that we can do that."
CandoCo performs in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin at 9 p.m. tonight and tomorrow as part of the Temple Bar Diversions free summer programme. Tel: 01-6772255 for more details