( CNN ) -- Andrew Dawson has nice hands , and he knows it . He 's fussy about moisturizing them and takes extra caution around the oven , although he uses power tools without hesitation . These hands are the stars of `` The Articulate Hand , '' a piece of performance theater about how various people 's hands have become impaired and what effect that 's had on them , both practically and psychologically . It 's a collaboration between Dawson and neuroscientist Dr. Jonathan Cole , and supported by the Wellcome Trust . `` I mix up performance and lecture and basically talk about human stories , '' Dawson says . `` It just happens that I 'm using my hand as a vehicle , but really I 'm talking about what it is to be human . '' In the show , which he hopes to perform again this year , he talks about various people who have lost complete use of their hands and demonstrates to the audience , through his own body 's movements , what these people 's lives are like . `` I am looking for that unique balance between science and art , so that medial practitioners and researchers learn something about the work they are doing from a new perspective , without feeling that the performance is 'not for them , ' Dawson said . `` And that the art audience in turn learn something about their very structure , of what it takes to be a human without confusing them with science. `` In October at TEDMED , a gathering of notable researchers , thinkers and other professionals in the health care space , Dawson performed a few powerful segments of `` The Articulate Hand . '' For one portion he takes on the movements of Debbie Graham , a woman who injured her spine when she dove into a swimming pool , glided across it and hit the wall . Graham broke her neck , and is quadriplegic as a result . Graham received bionic hand technology called the Freehand System , which involves electrodes under her skin connected to a receiver driven by a radio transmitter on the skin . In this way , moving her shoulder backwards and forwards makes her hand open and close . Cole wrote about Graham in a book called `` Still Lives : Narratives of Spinal Cord Injury . '' `` She can hold her fork herself or a brush and brush her hair , and that 's what gives her what she desires the most , and that 's independence , '' Dawson says . Dawson and Cole met after Dawson saw the neuroscientist 's documentary about a man who can not sense the relative position of his own joints and limbs . The pair worked together on a piece called `` Process of Portrayal , '' which deals with experiences of people who are paralyzed , or for whom movement is difficult . Recognizing Dawson 's `` extraordinary hands '' and artistic talent , it made sense for Cole to focus on that for their subsequent collaboration . `` Human hand function really reflects the evolution of the movement and creative [ areas of the ] brain , and one way to reflect on how we are defined by our hands is to look at the consequences of loss of function , '' Cole told CNN . `` So our next project had to be about the hand and neurology . '' Cole explains on `` The Articulate Hand '' website that there are parts of the brain called the motor and sensory cortex areas that are critical for the hand 's coordinated action , as well as sensation that helps you to act -- for instance , when you reach into your pocket for coins , and you have to feel and grasp them in order to pick them up without seeing them . He supplied the scientific insights and the patients that inspired `` The Articulate Hand . '' Cole and Dawson also created short videos with the patients so that people can see what they are like in real life , in addition to Dawson 's portrayal . `` We never pathologize the conditions but rather show you individual people living with their altered hands , so asking the audience to look beyond the problem to the person , '' Cole said . The show has been performed in the United Kingdom in 2010 and at the World Science Festival in June 2011 . Dawson took it to India last year also at a Wellcome Trust event . He is exploring multiple possibilities for 2012 . Dawson started out wanting to be an actor , and then got interested in dance , studying with the legendary dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham . He also studied theater in Paris . His interest in mime illusions started at 16 or 17 , but he credits that more to his imagination than to his hands . Besides `` The Articulate Hand , '' he 's also created and performed `` Space Panorama , '' which depicts the Apollo 11 moon landing with Dawson 's hands alone , and a hand-based dance performance called `` Quatre Mains . '' He 's also a hand model . If you want to try your hands at this sort of performance , Dawson has this advice : keep them moving , and keep them agile . `` There 's a lot of bones there . You have more bones in hands and feet than you have in whole of the rest of your body . You need to keep them supple . ''
' The Other Hand ' is a piece of performance theater about people with impaired hands . Artist Andrew Smith and neuroscientist Jonathan Cole collaborated on it . More than half the bones in the body are in the hands and feet .