Alice Sheppard flies through the air in her chair, arms loosely up and hair flying, joy on her face. Alice is a multiracial Black woman with coffee-colored skin and blonde curly hair wearing a rainbow shimmer gray costume. She is surrounded by a lush green forest and bright sky. Photo Christopher Duggan
Press

Press Contact: Mariclare Hulbert

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  • " Kinetic Light, a disability arts ensemble whose work is made by and for disabled people, has an ethic and aesthetic of access that is exceptionally thoughtful and thorough.
    - BRIAN SEIBERT, THE NEW YORK TIMES
  • “Kinetic Light allows disability to transform everything about the working process and the product.”
    -EMILY WATLINGTON, ART IN AMERICA
  • “There’s a strength, precision and grace that’s common of any professional dance performance. But then there’s something else: an honesty and vulnerability as the pair engages with the ramp, their chairs and each other.”
    — EMILY NONKO, VICE
  • “Disabled bodies and perspectives define Kinetic Light’s work….Though everyone is welcome in the audience, the group’s art is intended specifically for disabled people.”
    - MARGARET FUHRER, THE NEW YORK TIMES
  • “This ensemble of disabled artists is on the rise”
    - BRIAN SEIBERT, THE NEW YORKER
  • “One could argue that, with Sara Hendren’s architectural ramp, it is actually a trio—poetic, passionate and, frankly, haaaawwwt. Sheppard and Lawson are remarkably precise, electric performers.”
    — EVA YAA ASANTEWAA, DANCE CRITIC

Reviews & Articles

Press Releases

Side by side, Alice and Laurel lean into the camera, bodies and heads tenderly connected and arms reaching softly to you. Alice is a multiracial Black woman with coffee-colored skin and windswept blonde curly hair; Laurel is a white person with cropped teal hair; vibrant aqua, blue, and white tops and leggings are echoed in their silver chair frames. They sit on concrete sidewalk, brick and glass behind them, frame askew. Photo Yael Malka // A Sense of Shifting: Queer Artists Reshaping Dance

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  • "DESCENT models a truth that is rarely understood among dance audiences: Disability does not signify incompleteness. In fact, it offers novel pathways to several movement styles, each of them whole and generative of unique choreographic forms.”
  • — KEVIN GOTKIN, DANCE MAGAZINE
  • “Ms. Sheppard has been an innovator in disability arts, and this work illustrates just how much she’s expanded the notion of physicality in dance.”
  • — BRIAN SCHAEFER, THE NEW YORK TIMES
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