To describe Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson as dancers is to name only a small sliver
of their creative portfolio. To be sure, they are proficient, trained dancers and
have created and performed several works for Kinetic Light, the disability arts ensemble that Alice founded in 2016 and continues to lead.
In this episode of Art Restart, Alice and Laurel describe the path that led them to Kinetic Light and explain why
artists and institutions, rather than viewing accessibility as a requirement or need,
would be wise to embrace it as an esthetic principle. The Art Restart podcast is hosted
by Pier Carlo Talenti and is produced by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.
Image description: A close up of Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson suspended in the
air, arms outstretched and clasping each other’s hands. Alice is a multiracial Black
woman with coffee-colored skin and short curly hair; she wears a shimmery deep red
costume. Laurel is a white person with cropped hair; she wears a shimmery gold costume
with thick black shoulder straps. The dancers are somehow upside down and horizontal
at the same time, their wheels shining and facing out; if they let go, they will swing
like pendulums. Photo Robbie Sweeny.
To describe Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson as dancers is to name only a small sliver
of their creative portfolio. To be sure, they are proficient, trained dancers and
have created and performed several works for Kinetic Light, the disability arts ensemble that Alice founded in 2016 and continues to lead.