Let's dance: Disabled people's dance group creates environment where anyone can become dancer

• Published Aug 2, 2023 11:31 AM KST
• Updated Aug 2, 2023 2:39 PM KST

Street performance by Nodeul Espoir encourages audience self-expression

By Cho Hye-yoon

Members of Nodeul Espoir, a dance group from Nodeul Night School for the Disabled, formed a large dance circle at the heart of Marronnier Park near Hyewha Station in Seoul on a rainy Saturday, July 22.

Mixing live and recorded music, ranging from African beats to Korean trot rhythms, people slowly got up from their chairs and started dancing. There was no physical precision to the beat, no polished movements. Some seemed to be waltzing, others were doing the “tourist bus dance,” a reference describing elderly Korean people's dancing to the rhythms of trot songs around parked tourist buses. The dances were not unified at all, often out of sync.

Then, these individual dances became a collective movement and the audience joined in. Families, children, and passersby danced around the circle, clapping to the lead of the choreographer. It was the “Around Marronnier” performance, hosted by the Nodeul School and choreographed by Burkina Faso-born dancer Emmanuel Sanou.

Coming together is an important value Nodeul Espoir holds. Since 2017, Nodeul Espoir has been hosting its “communication circle” dance workshop with dancers from Koule Kan, a West-African and contemporary dance group that empowers marginalized communities by helping them express themselves through human movement.

Members of Nodeul Espoir are students with developmental and other severe disabilities. Most of them had lived in isolated group facilities and rehabilitation centers. Some recently left them and started to live independently, while others left years ago and have been integrating into society with the help of various support organizations and communities.

Nodeul Espoir's core values lie in advancing the self-determination of people with disabilities and helping them become active agents of society. “Its members, who often experience society outside a facility for the first time, face challenges of being fully integrated into society. Thus dance, a form of non-verbal communication, provides a useful guide for them to express themselves,” Sohan Young-kyo, a dance teacher of Nodeul Espoir, explained.

This is why the dance workshop facilitator, Emmanuel Sanou, named the team after the French word “espoir,” meaning hope. With the motto “dance goes everywhere,” Sanou believes that dance is for everyone.

“Disabled people are often put in the backside, and society doesn't want to include them. For me, this is not good and is devaluing. We cannot just put them in the backside. They are also integral parts of our society,” Sanou said.

Since 2020, Nodeul Espoir members have been working as dance performers, as part of the Seoul Metropolitan Government's rights-oriented projects for people with severe disabilities. The members gather every Tuesday at Nodeul School to practice dancing.

“When we teach dance movements, we seek ways that work for the students. For example, each of them already has their own movements and body language. I mirror them and create choreography based on their organic, corporeal expressions. Also, during the practice, the members always get to choose who they want to dance with and select their own music,” Sanou added.

The July 22 performance was joined by many passersby, including dancers from Barrowland Ballet, a Scottish dance company that had been on tour in Asia. They ran into Nodeul Espoir's performance after their own performance at ASSISTEJ Korea International Summer Festival for children and youth.

“It's cool to see communities coming together to support each other. It's really beautiful,” Charlotte Mclean, a dance artist from the dance company, told The Korea Times.

Another dance artist Joanne Pirrie also said, “I feel really lucky that we arrived here and this was happening. We didn't even plan to go.”

“With live music, recorded music, you see the trust and bond between dancers. That's what you need as performers. They support and cheer for each other, they're having a great time. It's really fun to see this side of Korea,” another dance artist Vince Virr said, while technical stage manager Craig McNeil said, “It was really nice that everybody got the turn and had the chance to showcase movements on the stage.”

This year, Nodeul Espoir brought the workshop to the streets and invited other performance groups to join them such as the African-music-based percussion group Djembecola and Sunshine Arnold Hula, a dance group from the Hub for Youth with Developmental Disabilities. The workshop has been supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Disability Arts and Culture Center.

The group will hold another dance gathering at Marronnier Park on Aug. 15.

Cho Hye-yoon (hyeyoon.cho@mail.mcgill.ca) is an intern reporter at The Korea Times.