Optimistic Becomings: Learning Disability Performance Outward Bound

This chapter considers how the cultural context of a corner of rural Wales becomes part of the substance of work by learning-disabled choreographers. The author argues for gesture as a vehicle for travel between dancers and audiences in a context where travelling to other locations is almost impossible. Theory is linked to practice with examples of how people with learning disabilities use gesture as choreographic material. If performers and audiences of all capacities are invited to take into our own bodies the gestures of performers with learning disabilities, new knowledge might emerge, and we can be transported into new locations of experience and understanding.