Disability Culture Watch

Bill Shannon a.k.a. The Crutchmaster is one of forty-three dancers featured in “Slow Dancing” – a video installation by photographer David Michalek that makes its debut at the Lincoln Center Festival on July 12. It is a free event.

The installation uses high-definition video technology to show the dancers moving at less than one one-hundredth of their original speed. By shooting at one thousand frames per second and using software to slow down the video even more, Michalek stretches each dancer’s five-second clip to a video lasting eight to twelve minutes

Bill Shannon – an exciting, mind-bending dancer/performance artist – had sold out performances in April 2006 at the Chicago Festival of Disability Arts & Culture. The New York Times from Sunday, July 8, features a great picture of Bill in an article about the event. Here is another picture of Bill in action (description below):

Photo: Bill Shannon dancing, using the specially-designed crutches he uses in performance. They have a u-shaped bottom. His feet are off the ground, and resting on the crutches.

“Slow Dancing” can be viewed daily on three fifty foot screens mounted onto the facade of the New York State Theater. The installation opens July 12 from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. and can be seen daily from July 13 through July 29 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.