JoAnne Tucker, Director
Kezia Gleckman Hayman, Associate Director
Newman Taylor Baker, Composer - in - Resident
JPMorgan Chase asked us to present a 45-minute program for Disability Awareness Month that would also recognize the qualities of a good leader. In planning the program, we felt it was essential to recruit for our ensemble a dancer with a disability, so we could learn from her insight and creativity throughout the process, and so we could help our audience achieve a level of comfort through appreciation that a "person with a disability" is simply a "person," with both disability and ability.
We were thus joined by Mana Hashimoto, an outstanding dancer who lost her vision 5 years ago and is completely blind. Mana's space awareness is remarkable, and with ingenuity she has devised a system of taping string to the floor to mark necessary reference points (such as squarely front). Most striking is Mana's masterful skill and grace in "watching" movement by feeling someone else perform it. By gently placing her hands on a moving dancer (usually standing behind the dancer), she is able to determine closely the positions and movement qualities of the model's arms, torso, hips, legs, etc. Mana taught us, and the JPMorgan Chase audience, much about innovative problem solving and teamwork, and clearly demonstrated the richness of learning through openness to others. With her lack of "vision" as we usually define it, Mana taught us all to see more clearly.
Our lecture demonstration began by showing how Mana became part of the ensemble by first "feeling" the movement of each individual dancer. In this way she became familiar with the movement style and quality of each of her colleagues, developed improvisations with them and learned set choreography from them. The program proceeded with improvisations and short choreographed pieces to illustrate various attributes of leadership, such as nurturing a positive attitude, communicating constructively, delivering results, working successfully with colleagues and conveying a commitment to integrity and respect. Our final presentation was a brief, simple excerpt of choreography inspired by the idea of opening one's heart, a principle we believe is equally important for both disability awareness and excellent leadership.
The program was video-conferenced to two sites, Boston and Tempe. It was introduced by the chairperson of JPMorgan Chase's "AccessAbility" Network, who had also provided us with valuable suggestions during our planning stage.
This program is an example of our mission to "celebrate the humanity of work: diversity, creativity, integrity and teamwork."