Dancecast

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews dance artist Elisabeth Motley, a New York City-based choreographer, scholar, and teacher whose work is concerned with disability as a framework for creative practice. Elisabeth describes how her journey began in rigorous normative dance practice and how she came to disability by way of a recurring brain disease that impacts her physical and cognitive abilities. Her pedagogy revolves around her own experience and her dreams of a curriculum that is not fixed and that centers disabled students. She pushes boundaries as a teacher with a disability in higher education and works in ways that refuse the system.Elisabeth Motley has a PhD from University of Roehampton in Dance Studies focusing on choreography and disability dance, an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, and a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. Elisabeth is a 2025 Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) Artist in Residence. She has been a 2023 Movement Research Access. Movement. Play. (AMP) Artist