Following the success of Parade (2022), the French company L’Autre Maison continues its exploration of inclusivity with a new creation: Starting with the Limbs, in collaboration with choreographer Annie Hanauer.
The performance is part of Holland Dance Festival’s DanceAble programme and aligns seamlessly with the inclusive DanceAble Symposium.
In Starting with the Limbs, the focus is on the experience of the prosthetic body. Four dancers – with and without disabilities – move through a series of unexpected choreographic variations. On stage, poetic objects form abstract landscapes: at times resembling bones, at others prosthetics. They alternately serve as support, obstacle, or playful partner, transforming and redefining the dancers’ movements.
Drawing inspiration from her own experience with prosthetics and from Japanese artist Mari Katayama – known for her striking self-portraits and handcrafted objects – Annie Hanauer invites the performers to create their own physical self-portraits. Each body tells a unique story, yet through constant interaction, a collective tableau emerges: bodies that listen, respond, and connect.
The performance poses powerful questions about identity, representation, and agency: who determines how a body is seen, and how can dance become a space where difference is not merely accepted but celebrated?
Together with visual artist Ghali Bensouda, who designed an innovative “wearable scenography,” Starting with the Limbs explores the boundaries between reality and imagination. The result is a sensory and moving performance that invites us to rediscover the diversity of the human body and to embrace the richness of different perspectives.
