Inclusion is the guiding principle of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been in force in Germany since 2009. In contrast to integration the hierarchy of the majority society and the idea of a normative social body, is questioned here.

As long as the difference between inclusion and integration has not yet been understood or implemented, Angela Alves asks questions: What does this majority society actually look like, who or what must be included or integrated by whom? Can disabled and diverse bodies elude the normative gaze matrix or add something else? How do ideas and myths of disability construct themselves?

Angela Alves is disabled. From time to time a nerve in her brain becomes inflamed and then she can no longer see, walk or feel well. She wonders why disabled people always get a lot of recognition when they fight against their disease and try hard to be competitive, available and sexy.

Angela Alves does not want to fight – certainly not against herself. She doesn’t want to cover up her limitations, she doesn’t want to be productive because of or despite her disability. She simply wants to work with what is there. With the unavailable bodies that can resist the glorification of self-exploitation by surrendering to the unpredictability and softening where they meet themselves and others with hardness. This is a SOFT OFFER.

ANGELA ALVES studied dance at the ArtEZ Kunsthochschule in Arnhem and dance science at the FU Berlin. In 2014 she founded TURN. Neue Bewegung für Multiple Sklerose, an association for artists with MS, which also offers dance workshops.

[Source: play bill]

TFB Nr. 1282