Alice Sheppard

Alice Sheppard is a disabled choreographer and dancer from Britain. Sheppard started her career first as a professor, but later became interested in dance. She became a member of the AXIS Dance Company and toured with them. She had also found Kinetic Light and leads it, an artistic coalition created in collaboration with dancer, Laurel Lawson, and lighting and video artist, Michael Maag.
Biography.
Sheppard earned a doctorate in medieval studies at Cornell University. She worked as an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University (PSU). In 2004, after a conference on disability studies, she took on a dare from disabled dancer, Homer Avila, to take a dance class. At the conference, she also met Simi Linton, who is the creator and co-director of "Invitation to Dance", where Linton's own account of disability is intertwined with the stories of others, including Sheppard, whose image graces the cover of the film. According to the other director of the film, Christian von Tippelskirch, "Alice Sheppard...is a central figure [in the film]. She is an amazingly talented, forceful dancer, whether on stage or at a party". The first dance lesson Sheppard took was taught by Kitty Lunn. She continued her dance lessons with AXIS Dance Company, became an apprentice dancer in 2006 and then became a company member in 2007.
Post-apprenticeship, Sheppard toured nationally and taught for the Axis Dance Company in their education and outreach programs. In 2012, she became an independent dancer and has since worked with companies in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Sheppard is a multiracial, Black Briton. She has preferred not to detail the specifics of her disability.
Career.
In 2014, Sheppard collaborated with GDance and Ballet Cymru to create the performance "Stuck in the Mud". The performance was presented as a promenade – an interactive performance where performers guided the audience through a tour of the site. She has also performed with Full Radius Dance in both 2014 and 2015.
In 2017, she collaborated with the Marc Brew Company to create BREWBAND, a performance that combined live rock music with live dance. The show "blurs boundaries between musicians and dancers and challenges audience's perceptions of what live performance is".
In 2017 Sheppard's dance company, Kinetic Light, created a piece entitled "Descent" (styled in all caps). Performed on an architectural ramp installation, The performance acts out the story of Andromeda and Venus, re-imagined as interracial lovers. Sheppard performed "Descent" with Laurel Lawson in wheelchairs.
In 2017, Alice Sheppard became one of two 2017-2018 recipients of a fully supported production residencies from Gibney Dance. The award will provides resources to develop and stage new works.
In February 2018, Sheppard performed at the ribbon cutting of an additional 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of space at the Gibney Dance Center. She also spoke at the 2018 Dance/NYC Symposium on a panel about growing the field of disability dance in NYC.
In July 2018, she graced the cover of "Dance Magazine", credited with "moving the conversation beyond loss and adversity." Sheppard was featured as recently as February 2019 in the "New York Times" article, "I Dance Because I Can." This article features the work of both Sheppard and fellow artist and member of Kinetic Light, Laurel Lawson. "I Dance Because I Can" emphasizes the connection between "art and social justice", detailing the ways in which Sheppard's work responds to and evolves out of disability culture and aesthetics.
In January 2019, Sheppard was one of 58 artists who were awarded the Creative Capital award.
Movement style and choreography.
Sheppard's dances use her wheelchair as an extension of her body. She also uses crutches in her routines. In 2016, she incorporated the use of ramps, built by engineering students at Olin College. Below is a list of works choreographed by Sheppard.