Holding the Line – the Line that holds us

Line and Thea are both young women in their 20s who have found joy and each other through dance. Line lives with Down syndrome and the two met through the Association for Integrated Modern Dance, which aims to create spaces and dance communities for people with and without different physical abilities.

The performance highlights how dance can be an important and safe outlet for self-expression and acceptance of those who deviate from the norm – in one way or another. Those who deviate from the normative body, the normative mind.

And what we can all learn by making room on the dance floor for those who are not normally invited onto it.

In a relationship between an able-bodied person and someone with a visible disability, there is usually a clear expectation of who is providing care and who is receiving it. But in dance, we meet and exchange it as equals.

Testimonial:

“In August 2024, a small group of young people from Levuk went to Christians Havns Torv to experience the dance performance Holding the Line, where Line, who attends Levuk club, together with her dance partner and companion Thea showed how dance and movement can embody the story of your own identity.

We also saw how a relationship between two people can be communicated non-verbally to an audience. The performance was both touching and funny. With Line and Thea’s powerful and talented expressions, we got caught up in seeing who they were individually and together. The strong bond between the two dancers became clear to us as an audience.

At the end of the performance, we were invited to the floor where we were all connected with some amazing sweaters with very long sleeves, keeping us together in groups that could influence each other’s movements. It was hard to stop again, because it was as if what we had experienced between Line and Thea had spread like ripples in the water; in dance there is room for all of us and we are created in relationship with others. Thank you for a powerful experience!” Lotte Skovdal, Theater educator at Levuk