Why did I decide to put sword into my solo performance?
Sword fighting is something that I am trained in and it is also something that most people would assume that someone in a wheelchair would not be able to do. There is this stereotyped idea that disabled people cannot do anything and I felt that putting my swords in the show was a good way to dispel this belief. Most of my audience members will be able-bodied therefore they, possibly, will not know just how much physical stuff I can do even though I am disabled. My swords are a very clear way of showing just what I can do and that is why I really wanted to include them into this performance.
The sword fighting section of my piece was a section that I wanted to put in from the beginning however it took a while to find a way to fit it into the piece. Originally my idea was to do a larger sword section, similar to the movement sequence at the end of the piece, however this did not seem to really fit with the feel of the piece. I also originally was going to include some of the other weapons I am trained in, a fan and a bow staff, however they did not seem to fit the piece so I took them out. Also the time restrictions meant that another big sequence would take the performance over the limit.
^ above is a video of one of my first ideas of a martial arts section. In this video I use a fan as a weapon and was intending to build the sequence up to then include my swords.
So instead of creating a big sword sequence I integrated the swords into a dialogue section. This section comes after a section which the horrible comments and questions that get asked to me because I am disabled. The swords very clearly go against everything these comments claim and also lighten up the show. The horrible comments section was the “darkest” section of the show so it needed something that would pick it back up again. Also I needed a way of discussing the horrible without the show turning into a bit of a rant which the swords did.
^video of how the sword section turned out