Performance artist Bill Shannon spoke at the University last night as part of Disability Awareness Week, but he said the real reason he came was not for the disabled, but for the able-bodied.
“This isn’t about me and being disabled,” Shannon said to the crowd of approximately 60 people gathered in the EMU Ballroom. “This is about you and how you look at me.”
Shannon said many of the challenges people with disabilities face are not a result of their disabilities, but of the way the able-bodied treat them.
Many people see a person with a disability and immediately assume he or she needs help, Shannon said.
This became painfully clear to Shannon one hot summer day in Chicago six years ago. Shannon, disabled since the age of five, said he was performing his trademark acrobatic moves on crutches when a member of the audience pointed at the hat he had put out to collect donations and sympathetically asked, “Did you drop your hat?”
That day in Chicago became a turning point in his career, Shannon said. It inspired him to travel the world to put on street performances investigating how the able-bodied react to people with disabilities.
As part of his speech, Shannon narrated while he showed computer video footage depicting several of his performances. Some of the videos were of Shannon performing simple tasks such as picking up a bottle while on crutches. In other clips, he was shown falling or having difficulty walking.
The significance of these performances lies not in what he is doing, Shannon said, but in how people react to him. Throughout the clips, bystanders rush to Shannon’s aid, even when he doesn’t need help.
“No matter what I do, how far I go in terms of what I represent, there’s still people who look at me like ‘that kid needs help,’” Shannon said.
Shannon said his own creative adaptations allow him to do things on crutches many would consider impossible.
Because of his disability, walking long distances, even on crutches, can be very painful, Shannon said. But rather than using a wheelchair, Shannon gets around by traveling nearly everywhere by skateboard. He uses his crutches to propel himself along in what he calls “cross-country urban skiing.”
What he is best known for, however, is the unique dance style which has earned him respect and recognition among the hip-hop and dance communities.
Audience members clapped and shouted their approval as the man known as the “Crutchmaster” performed two hip-hop dances so fluidly acrobatic that the crutches under his arms appeared to be mere extensions of his limbs.
When Shannon spoke about his work, which he said combines elements of breakdancing, skateboarding and his disability, his passion for dance was evident.
“The dance is a feeling, a sensation. It’s a place as much as it is a move,” Shannon said.
Crowd reaction to Shannon’s performance was positive. Freshman Haben Woldu, who is originally from Ethiopia, said she had never seen anything like it.
“It was really, really awesome. I have never seen disabled people do anything like that before because I come from a country where disabled people are unable to lead a normal life,” Woldu said.
ASUO Diversity Recruitment and Retention Director Joy Nair, who helped to organize the event, said Shannon’s speech raised many important issues which are not often discussed at the University.
“He hit a lot of the concerns of able-bodied people, and how we look at disabled people, and how we react toward the disabled community,” Nair said.