Comments on: Women with Disabilities: Wheelchair Dancer http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/ Sat, 14 Aug 2010 20:24:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Can I put a wheelchair lift in the rear of a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe? | Used Wheelchair Lift http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-468 Can I put a wheelchair lift in the rear of a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe? | Used Wheelchair Lift Fri, 21 May 2010 04:51:58 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-468 [...] Women with Disabilities: Wheelchair Dancer » Danine N. Spencer [...] [...] Women with Disabilities: Wheelchair Dancer » Danine N. Spencer [...]

]]> By: Criss http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-347 Criss Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:39:19 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-347 WCD, Read your Glee post (and am bookmarking the others). Thank you! Excellently said. And I agree completely with everything you said. (I watched the first season of Glee because of the pilot, though it soon became that gory car crash you can't look away from. I won't out myself through that misery next season, though.) I'm in DFW, Texas, so I hope one of the links in your blog is to wheelchair dance troupes around here! I do have a sister in San Francisco, so I'll send her to your blog. I'm sure she'd love to see you all perform. (I'm a wanna-be dancer, after one year of high school drill team and a few community theater musical productions, but my sister's actually good at it.) WCD,
Read your Glee post (and am bookmarking the others). Thank you! Excellently said. And I agree completely with everything you said.

(I watched the first season of Glee because of the pilot, though it soon became that gory car crash you can’t look away from. I won’t out myself through that misery next season, though.)

I’m in DFW, Texas, so I hope one of the links in your blog is to wheelchair dance troupes around here! I do have a sister in San Francisco, so I’ll send her to your blog. I’m sure she’d love to see you all perform. (I’m a wanna-be dancer, after one year of high school drill team and a few community theater musical productions, but my sister’s actually good at it.)

]]> By: Criss http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-346 Criss Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:16:56 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-346 I see why the question is the opener to this interview series, but I also see how it "hit a nerve" with WCD and that response was her first reaction -- it's not necessarily a reaction to the question in this setting, but to a part of her reality as a person with a disability. I enjoyed reading that honest "confession" (I can't think of a better word, even though that one doesn't fit), because as a TAB person it does help to offer me insight into what a PWD's everyday life is like, and what that person's interaction with me, or even other PWDs, is. I would have liked to know more about the dancing (I realize I can go to your blog to read more, and I will); sadly, my first thought when reading your Internet name was the "Wheels" episode of Glee. I'm not a fan of the show -- I loved the pilot episode, but the show failed each and every week harder than the week before after the pilot... As a wheelchair dancer, if you watch the show (either regularly or if you saw that episode), how did you feel about it? How do you feel about the fact that they cast an able-bodied actor for that role, when wheelchair dancing was going to be a big part of the role? Did he do a "good" job? Do you know if any actual wheelchair dancers were cast as extras for that episode? (I'll go peruse your blog now, in case you already addressed all this there... or maybe you don't waste your time with bad TV and haven't given Glee this much thought...) Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I see why the question is the opener to this interview series, but I also see how it “hit a nerve” with WCD and that response was her first reaction — it’s not necessarily a reaction to the question in this setting, but to a part of her reality as a person with a disability. I enjoyed reading that honest “confession” (I can’t think of a better word, even though that one doesn’t fit), because as a TAB person it does help to offer me insight into what a PWD’s everyday life is like, and what that person’s interaction with me, or even other PWDs, is.

I would have liked to know more about the dancing (I realize I can go to your blog to read more, and I will); sadly, my first thought when reading your Internet name was the “Wheels” episode of Glee. I’m not a fan of the show — I loved the pilot episode, but the show failed each and every week harder than the week before after the pilot…

As a wheelchair dancer, if you watch the show (either regularly or if you saw that episode), how did you feel about it? How do you feel about the fact that they cast an able-bodied actor for that role, when wheelchair dancing was going to be a big part of the role? Did he do a “good” job? Do you know if any actual wheelchair dancers were cast as extras for that episode?

(I’ll go peruse your blog now, in case you already addressed all this there… or maybe you don’t waste your time with bad TV and haven’t given Glee this much thought…)

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

]]> By: Danine http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-345 Danine Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:33:59 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-345 Ashley and WCD, Thanks for your comments. I'm sorry I didn't reply to this sooner, but I've been dealing with a lot of pain issues so I haven't been able to use the computer much lately. WCD, I like your point about why we ask each other what our disabilities are and why we try to categorize each other. Still, I started this interview series as way to educate others about disabilities. People are scared out of their mind being disabled. Also, I have found that living with a disability has been incredibly isolated because people don't understand what my experience is like. I thought at women with disabilities or chronic conditions could spend a little bit of time talking about what they live with on a daily basis maybe we could do demystify disability. Maybe it wouldn't be so scary. Maybe there wouldn't be such a stigma around disability. I realize that it is not politically correct among groups that have been marginalized/oppressed to say that we need to educate others about our issues but the reality is that we do. People are not going to take time out of their lives to educate themselves about disability when it doesn't affect them. They're too busy taking care of themselves and their families, working, going to school, and let's face it, watching American Idol. :-) Oh, and the interview is a standard set of questions that I asked everyone. I based it on the <a href="http://www.undomesticgoddess.com/search/label/The%20Undomestic%2010" target="_target" rel="nofollow">Undomestic 10</a>, and interview series that's the same kind questions of every participant. If you have some feedback on the questions I would love to hear it. Ashley and WCD,

Thanks for your comments. I’m sorry I didn’t reply to this sooner, but I’ve been dealing with a lot of pain issues so I haven’t been able to use the computer much lately. WCD, I like your point about why we ask each other what our disabilities are and why we try to categorize each other. Still, I started this interview series as way to educate others about disabilities. People are scared out of their mind being disabled. Also, I have found that living with a disability has been incredibly isolated because people don’t understand what my experience is like. I thought at women with disabilities or chronic conditions could spend a little bit of time talking about what they live with on a daily basis maybe we could do demystify disability. Maybe it wouldn’t be so scary. Maybe there wouldn’t be such a stigma around disability.

I realize that it is not politically correct among groups that have been marginalized/oppressed to say that we need to educate others about our issues but the reality is that we do. People are not going to take time out of their lives to educate themselves about disability when it doesn’t affect them. They’re too busy taking care of themselves and their families, working, going to school, and let’s face it, watching American Idol. :-)

Oh, and the interview is a standard set of questions that I asked everyone. I based it on the Undomestic 10, and interview series that’s the same kind questions of every participant. If you have some feedback on the questions I would love to hear it.

]]> By: wheelchairdancer http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-344 wheelchairdancer Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:27:05 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-344 Hi Ashley -- thanks for commenting. WCD is my internet persona, so, yes, an element of disability is immediately visible. I chose it, 3 years ago, to make people think -- how can a person in a wheelchair dance? what does that mean? I reacted to Danine's question because it is in my experience at least one of the first questions PWD's ask of each other. "So, what's your disability ... why are you in the chair .... I ....." It's a an opener. I never use that question or tell that story, so I wanted to start a conversation about why we ask that question of each other. I'm not sure why Danine has it there; she just asked me to do a set of questions that she was asking of people. I was excited about participating. So, thanks for being part of the conversation. I have a blog's worth of writing about the art, but if there's anything you want to know -- please just drop me a line...... wheelchairdancer a t gm a il dot co m WCD Hi Ashley — thanks for commenting. WCD is my internet persona, so, yes, an element of disability is immediately visible. I chose it, 3 years ago, to make people think — how can a person in a wheelchair dance? what does that mean? I reacted to Danine’s question because it is in my experience at least one of the first questions PWD’s ask of each other. “So, what’s your disability … why are you in the chair …. I …..” It’s a an opener. I never use that question or tell that story, so I wanted to start a conversation about why we ask that question of each other. I’m not sure why Danine has it there; she just asked me to do a set of questions that she was asking of people. I was excited about participating. So, thanks for being part of the conversation. I have a blog’s worth of writing about the art, but if there’s anything you want to know — please just drop me a line…… wheelchairdancer a t gm a il dot co m

WCD

]]> By: Ashley http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-343 Ashley Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:54:48 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-343 I really liked your points about who gets to define the disability or say that someone has one. I also appreciated your insight about the stares from children and the things you've learned to say to people who are curious about your disability. I really liked your points about who gets to define the disability or say that someone has one. I also appreciated your insight about the stares from children and the things you’ve learned to say to people who are curious about your disability.

]]> By: Ashley http://danine.net/2010/02/08/women-with-disabilities-wheelchair-dancer/comment-page-1/#comment-342 Ashley Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:43:01 +0000 http://danine.net/blog2/?p=1078#comment-342 I understand wheelchair dancer's opinion about disability and medical experience all too often being used to define the person affected. But the whole purpose of this interview is to talk ABOUT your disability. It's not as though you and Danine were set to talk on something completely unrelated, but she went straight to talk about your disability. Also, your name is "wheelchair dancer." I don't know if you or Danine came up with that, but to me, it focuses on the wheelchair and not the person who uses it. This seems to contradict your desire to not be defined by your disability. I was also surprised that this interview didn't really focus at all on the actual dancing. To me, talking about the actual dancing would have drawn attention away from the wheelchair and onto the art. Isn't that your objective here, wheelchair dancer, since you don't seem to wish to be defined or compared based on your disability? Maybe I'm wrong. I just feel unsatisfied. This interview didn't share anything about the art or the disability, but I would love more insight. In my Disability Studies class, I watched footage of different types of wheelchair dancing: competitive and interpretive. I understand wheelchair dancer’s opinion about disability and medical experience all too often being used to define the person affected. But the whole purpose of this interview is to talk ABOUT your disability. It’s not as though you and Danine were set to talk on something completely unrelated, but she went straight to talk about your disability. Also, your name is “wheelchair dancer.” I don’t know if you or Danine came up with that, but to me, it focuses on the wheelchair and not the person who uses it. This seems to contradict your desire to not be defined by your disability.

I was also surprised that this interview didn’t really focus at all on the actual dancing. To me, talking about the actual dancing would have drawn attention away from the wheelchair and onto the art. Isn’t that your objective here, wheelchair dancer, since you don’t seem to wish to be defined or compared based on your disability? Maybe I’m wrong. I just feel unsatisfied. This interview didn’t share anything about the art or the disability, but I would love more insight. In my Disability Studies class, I watched footage of different types of wheelchair dancing: competitive and interpretive.

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