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Claire Cunningham

Independent Choreographer and Performer

Claire Cunningham

"Claire is an ambassador for the enrichment of the arts through difference. Her work brings a new aesthetic to dance; she reaches way beyond the definitions of disability arts and engages head-on with the issues of disability in a powerful way."

Claire has excelled in creating engaging, thought-provoking and humourous auto-biographical multi-disciplinary performance work. Claire has made outstanding work based on honing skills specifically created by her physical impairment and looking at perceived limitations as virtuosity.  Her work connects across a wide range of audiences and provokes them into questioning their notions of disability, dance and aesthetics.   

Claire’s vision has been to stay true to her physical starting point of using crutches in everyday life and then to show the potential to create something extraordinary from her ordinary way of moving.  Winner of the Herald Angel Award for ME (Mobile/Evolution) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2009, Claire has gained support from the Scottish Arts Council and both national and international acclaim for her creative potential and amazing skills on crutches.

As co-Director of Waterbaby Dance Ltd, a partnership with Linda Payne, she aims to address the lack of role models and inclusive dance training for physically impaired individuals in Scotland.

Her leadership in the sector stems from this outstanding work, the development of her teaching technique and as an inspiring role model for both disabled and non-disabled artists and audiences.