Disabling ability in dance: Intercultural dramaturgies of the Thikwa plus Junkan Project

From 2008 to 2012, I worked as a dramaturge in Japan and Germany, developing an international dance project titled Thikwa plus Junkan Project with Osamu Jareo, a choreographer based in Japan. This project, involving Japanese and German differently abled performers, was created and performed in both countries. This article highlights our experiences while designing and implementing this mixed-ability, intercultural project. Stretching across disciplines and code systems, this project reveals cultural construction of dis/ability and dance aesthetics and provides an alternative concept for dancing bodies. To avoid using the other culture for one’s own benefit as well as to avoid being consumed as its others in the international dance market, I consider, in this article, how the intercultural dramaturgy of this project aims to realize a cultural ecology of dance by switching our cultural frames to balance the power.