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CAMDEN, Maine -- His "medical validation" is that he's got a bilateral hip deformity. And if you spend more than a few minutes with crutch dancer Bill Shannon, you realize he's not only very articulate about the often absurd social codes we unconsciously adhere to around someone on crutches, he also translates those ideas into some stunning maneuvers and performances.
Demonstrating just a few of the moves in his Shannon Technique, this quadruped New Yorker turned on so many light bulbs above PopTech-ers heads this morning, the organizers may need to recalculate the conference's carbon footprint.
In May, Wired blogger Elliot Van Buskirk wrote up Shannon's one-man (and two-crutch) acrobatics in hip-hop turntablist/producer RJD2's video "Work It Out". And if those skillz weren't mad skillz enough, a quick perusal of Shannon's own online video archives will lead to the logical end-point: This guy is also a one-man re-conceptualization of dance.
[photo by Kris Krug]
"Most people think if you need crutches, you can't walk," he said. "And if you can walk, you don't need crutches. There's no in between. It's like if you were to see somebody with glasses and say, 'Take those glasses off! I know you're not blind!'"
"I stand in this very ambiguous place, where I have a representational disability, but I'm also able to assimilate able-bodiness if I need to," Shannon said as he showed off crutch techniques such as the double-high mids and the low-bar toe thread.
"The disability continuum of my life, starting with not being on (crutches), then at 5 being on them, then at 12 getting off them, then at 24 or 25 starting to have the re-emergence of (the need for crutches), and now I'm 36. I've been back on them for 10 years -- looking at the previous history of my early childhood. And it's really (about) taking a look at what happens in public space. All of my work in theater has been a translation from the street to the stage."
