Oh dear, what to say about this show. The first thing might be ‘what was it doing in the Dance section of the International Festival?’, where events are already in fairly short supply. Publicity explains that Dan Daw Creative Projects ‘blurs the line between theatre, dance and activism’ and ‘creates systemic change in institutions and the sector for d/Deaf and disabled artists and audiences’. On the other hand, Daw has worked with Candoco and has recently choreographed a show for them uniting disabled and able-bodied dancers.
Dan Daw is a heavily-tattooed, gay, disabled (cerebral palsy) performer who cheerfully refers to himself as a ‘crip’ and, at the beginning of this show, explained that the performance would show us how he is ‘finding a way to live in my crip joy’. His pre-show chat offered trigger warnings, confirmed that he had consented to everything that followed, and told us we were free to leave at any point if we felt uncomfortable. So far so good: expectations were being raised…
Sadly, what followed was an hour and a half of him having totally unrelated things done to him by his partner Christopher Owen (‘ChrisX’, not disabled, constantly wearing a knowing smirk), working through various physical exercises that explored issues of power, dominance and submission in a relationship. Or, looking at it another way, inflicting various forms of humiliation.
Nothing that could possibly be described as dance went on. There were fleeting moments of tenderness when he was being held or caressed but mostly he was simply being swung around, rolled on the floor or, perhaps more dubiously, trodden on, used as a footstool, strangled or made to walk on all-fours. ‘Joy as Resistance’? Well, if you say so, Dan.
This piece is around four years old now and felt curiously old-fashioned in its desire to shock but, worse, it was also – well, just rather dull and repetitive. Minutes went by while Daw was being sealed into a vacuum tank (why?), waiting for ChrisX to wheel out a table for him to stand on, or watching ChrisX pull on his arm for what felt like ten minutes.
Also, its extemporary nature is clearly a sham. Daw has performed this show many times, which made nonsense of the spontaneous ‘safe word’ moments that ended some sequences. And for all its embracing of gay/crip culture, there’s no monopoly on this kind of stuff – it’s freely available.
Daw’s argument is that as society ‘fucks the disabled’, he’s exercising his power by ‘showing how he wants to be loved’. I’m glad he feels he’s done that; I just wish he hadn’t involved me in it.
