thank you for your company.

You shaped my childhood and my youth, although you were generally seen as for able-bodied from the outside. This assumption never stopped me from making my own dance, telling my own stories. You belong to none and yet to us all, that’s what you taught me when I needed to understand, that my body too had a voice.

Out of the blue came DanceAbility, represented by its founder Alto Alessi, and his main dancer Emery Blackwell who was the first wheelchair using dancer crossing my path. Moreover, Emery had CP like I do.

They danced a duet full of wit, humour and elegance, their bodies in motion, the wheelchair demystified as prop… In the simplicity lay their excellence, their brilliance. They spoke to me straight to my core and I knew: you, dear dance, are for all bodies.

Dear dance, thank you for gifting me with unexpected encounters with beautiful people who I can name my friends for decades at this day. They will recognize themselves should they be reading this. Thank you, dear dance, for turning my life upside down when I needed it most. With you, I learned self-consciousness, awareness of my limitations and you were the teacher I appreciated most because you helped me master them. I figured out that my limitations weren’t automatically my limits. For those limits were imposed on myself, put over me like an old sock that needed replacement.

You, dear dance, as I had been introduced to you by my love of music and rhythm since I was a wee kid, completed me. You sent me Maja and we were (and still are) crazy about bringing you to all people, regardless of ability, age or colour.

And here I am today, teaching while I still can, that we can all dance as long as we can breathe.

Full of gratitude, always yours,

Anne Chérel

{paru lors d’un appel à participation de https://annemareikehess.com/ lors du 30ième anniversaire du 3CL en avril 2025}

Merci Anne-Mareike!