I discovered DanceAbility in 2004, when I was searching for training to teach and lead dance in community settings. I wasn’t specifically looking for disability-inclusive dance, but DanceAbility founder Alito Alessi pointed out I couldn’t effectively teach dance to the community if I exclude 25% or more of community members with ableist dance methods.

He was right about that, and during my month-long DanceAbility teacher certification I also quickly realized that my fellow trainees with disabilities were as much my allies in dance improvisation research and practice as I was theirs. When they shared their experiences moving and living with disabilities, through talking and dancing with me, I learned new possibilities for moving and being that I’d never learned in normative dance spaces. Twenty-one years later, I’m still engaged in DanceAbility practice. I love building community through movement. And moving in communities resourced by movers diverse in our minds, bodies, and senses–as well as in our cultural backgrounds and outlooks-continues to inspire and teach me.

Who am I? I’m a middle-class queer female, married with English/German-roots, who grew up around the country and around the world before graduating from high school and college on the east coast then moving to Detroit in 1993. I participated in the first Detroit Summer the previous year, a grassroots intergenerational community activism project, and I decided to move back to continue working with the committed and compassionate activists who founded it.

Am I disabled? I’ve had some significant experiences with disabling depression and anxiety, and I experience the periodic injuries and joint challenges of an aging human mover as well as mild chronic directional dyslexia. At this point, I don’t identify as disabled, nor do others identify me as disabled, as far as I know. However, my experiences on the continuum of “dis/ability” and in disability justice culture help me weave community with people with varying disabilities. Sometimes my basically-for-now-"able-bodied"-and-"neurotypical" perspectives, or my socioeconomic or cultural biases, prevent me from connecting meaningfully or equitably with people rooted in disability culture and/or other cultures different from mine. When that happens, I embrace constructive feedback, ask forgiveness, and evolve.

DanceAbility came out of contact improvisation, a dance form born in 1972—like me!—that forever changed what dance can look and feel like. I practice DanceAbility to touch the magic that happens when a group of humans with various bodies, minds, and modes of sensing…from various cultures and social experiences...come together to co-create dance.

D-Love Muzic is a Detroit born & based multi-instrumentalist, percussionist, producer & artist who has worked with many award-winning acts. He has had the pleasure of working with award winning and nominated artists such as Floetry, Salt n Pepa, Algebra, Tonex aka  B-Slade, Eric Roberson, Anthony David, Carl Craig, Karen Briggs, Waajeed, Zo! and Carmen Rodgers of The Foreign Exchange, Ideeyah, Mike Ellison & The Detroit Ballet to name a few.

As a music producer and artist, he has had placements and appearances on tv, films, stage plays, albums, festivals and radio both international and domestic.

As a musical & technical director, D-Love has co-created and performed in many stage productions, presentations and award shows that have toured through many prestigious colleges, universities, theaters, corporations, and governmental programs. Rather being a member of an ensemble or a one-man band, D-Love's unique talent to fuse traditional, modern, and electronic percussion with modern production skills & multiple music techniques, makes him a valued asset to every artist, company, and venue he has the pleasure of working with.

Cancel Monday is a Livonia-based band, started by Jeff Michels in 2007. Cancel Monday consists of energetic musicians specializing in live special event entertainment. Jeff started the group with the idea of having a high-energy dance band that could cover all styles of music with all live musicians, no computer tracks. He has been successful in promoting the group throughout the metro Detroit area and from Chicago to Florida. Jeff has been playing live all over the USA for the last 28 years and has worked behind some well-known musicians. He has covered all styles of music from straight ahead jazz to high energy dance music.