Columbia Daily Tribune

St. Louis dancers to "speak" to the disabled

By STEVE JENNINGS
Special to the Tribune
Sunday, February 25, 2001

Is a dance really a dance if the dancers can't move their legs? What good is that new coffeehouse if you can't get inside? Is romance possible after paralysis?

Those are questions posed by The DisAbility Project, a 4-year-old theater group from St. Louis scheduled to perform tomorrow at the annual awards ceremony hosted by the University of Missouri's Office of Disability Services. Three hundred guests will watch the act at Reynolds Alumni Center.

For Michelle Froese, a ceremony organizer with a theater background, the St. Louis troupe is a natural fit with the disability services office.

After watching a performance directed by Joan Lipkin earlier this month, Froese expects the performance tomorrow to make a connection with at least part of the audience.

"If you're disabled and go often to see live theater, the plays don't always speak to your experiences," she said. "But here is an artistic voice that does."

Froese attended the earlier performance with a student representative of the office who is blind.

"I really wanted his take on the evening," Froese said. "He listened through the whole performance and then leaned over and said to me, 'This is so important - we've got to have them.'"

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