Martha Carter shares a multimedia performance reflecting her own ‘twisted’ journey of living with a crooked spine while pursuing a career in dance
THE STRAIGHT (Vancouver)—Martha Carter empties a little black bag onto the dance-studio floor. Before us lies a pile of glittering steel bits—hooks, bolts, and rods that look like hardware ripped out of the Terminator. “Don’t worry. They’ve been cleaned,” she jokes. These are pieces of the apparatus that was once used to straighten her spine. Surgically implanted in the ’70s, they were a symbol of what she couldn’t do. Now, they’re a symbol of what she can.
Thirty-six years ago, at the age of 14, as Carter lay immobilized in an itchy body cast, a career in dance seemed like an impossibility. Before doctors had surgically fused her vertebrae and inserted the metal rods, they had made it clear that her training would have to end.
Today, in her multimedia new work Twisted, the veteran choreographer finally deals with her struggles with scoliosis—and proves the surgeons’ predictions wrong. Read the rest of this article at The Straight…
TWiSTED: SOLO
“TWiSTED:SOLO” is inspired by Carter’s own ‘twisted’ journey of living with a crooked spine while pursuing a career in dance. TWiSTED: SOLO is a 45 minute performance that combines monologue, movement, music and visuals to expose the complex layers of revelation and reflection around this story of perseverance. With music by Jacob Cino and Lori Clarke, visuals by Jamie Griffiths and dramaturgy by Lee Su-Feh, TWiSTED:SOLO is storytelling as performance art.
TWiSTED: SOLO has been presented across Canada at the Vancouver Museum of Anthropology’s InBODY Symposium during the Olympic Arts Festival, (March 2010), Canada Dance OFF-Festival (June 2010), Festival Corps Atypik in Montréal, (March 2011), Dance in Vancouver 2011 (Nov 2011) and the International Day for Disability at Vancouver’s Roundhouse, (Dec 2011).
Martha Carter will present TWiSTED: SOLO in Nanaimo on May 11, 2013. She will also be teaching two workshops in Nanaimo on Sunday, May 5. “Dancing With Your Spine” and “Gentle Body Stretching for Backcare and Scoliosis” emphasizes Martha’s mission to connect people with their bodies through dance.
We speak with Martha Carter.
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RELATED | The Straight: Choreographer Martha Carter finds her backbone (Mar. 25, 2009) | Vancouver Observer: Martha Carter delves into scoliosis in her multi-media performance Twisted:Solo (Nov. 14, 2011) | The Vancouver Sun: Metal pins screamed ‘Get me out of here!’ to Martha Carter (Mar. 29, 2009) | T.O.P.S.: Twisted Outreach Project for Back Care & Scoliosis |
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This is a choreography by Martha Carter performed as part of the show VINGT, presented at the Cinquième Salle of the Place des Arts, Montreal, on October 6th 2009.
