Not many students get to dance as part of their Ph.D. dissertation, but fourth year Doctoral student Maggie Quinlan (Buffalo, NY) did just that. Maggie is in the second year of her project, which is exploring communication practices at Dancing Wheels Company and School, a Dance Company and School emphasizing the complete integration of dancers with and without disabilities. Dancing Wheels, based out of the Cleveland Masonic and Performing Arts center, has performed across the country and serves nearly a thousand students each year; over 55% of the dancers have some form of disability, according to information released by the school.
|
Maggie Quinlan was drawn to study the company and school because of its uniqueness and her passion for exploring communication issues surrounding the topic of disability. “When I first saw The Dancing Wheels Company & School perform in January 2007, I was in awe (and still am today),” said Quinlan. “The Dancing Wheels Company & School is a unique organization that has pioneered the inclusion of people with and without disabilities through the arts. “
Quinlan’s interest in research on communication needs surrounding disability did not begin with the Dancing Wheels project. In fact, Dancing wheels is a culmination of practical and theoretical interests that Maggie has been developing since her MA work at Illinois State. As Maggie explained, “While working with Dr. Lynn Harter, I became very interested in organizations, like Passion Works, which emancipate the human spirit through the arts. At the core of Dancing Wheels appears to be an alternative understandings of disability. The Dancing Wheels Company & School brings together dancers with and without disabilities (standup and sitdown dancers). Like Passion Works, The Dancing Wheels Company & School offers employment for individuals with and without disabilities. Even more amazing is that they are expanding what it means to be a dancer and an individual with disabilities.”
Maggie’s project addresses the following general research questions:
-
How does Dancing Wheels resist dominant narratives of disability?
-
What identities are made available through Dancing Wheels?
-
How do legal, economic, and corporeal issues shape how Dancing Wheels performs disability?
|
Maggie Quinlan with one of the Dancers at a summer dance workshop at the Dancing Wheels Company and School.
|
Maggie’s project will move toward completion as the year progresses. Maggie’s work on her dissertation is facilitated, in part, by the university-wide Kantner fellowship that Maggie was awarded in the Spring of 2008. The Kantner fellowship allows Maggie to be released from all teaching and administrative responsibilities. Maggie joins a long list of COMS students who have won the Kantner; she is the 17th student in the last 18 years from COMS to be awarded the Kantner. Maggie has also received research funding from the School to assist with travel and lodging while she works with Dancing Wheels in Cleveland.
Posted on
Monday, August 4, 2008
by Scott Titsworth