Bill Stevens   Dancing with Blindness
Channel: Vic Cooper
Date: 2017-11-09

We don’t often think of blind people as dancers but Bill Stevens is about to change your mind. With courage, grace and gentle wit, he points outs how our culture has many unintentional biases towards what blindness is and what it means to be a non-sighted dancer. Besides being a great mover and dancer, Bill is an accomplished Jazz pianist, educator, and author. He is a member of the music faculty at Santa Clara University, where he directs the Musicianship / Sight-singing program and teaches Jazz Piano. He is also a teaching artist with Avivo, a collective of master educators dedicated to cultivating creativity through music and music teaching. Learn more about Bill at http://billstevensjazz.com/. He's just released his first album, A Blues by Any Other Name.
Bill refers to the book, Planet of the Blind, by Stephen Kuusisto. Find out more at https://stephenkuusisto.com 
Dancing with Blindness was filmed by Vic Cooper during an Open Floor Conscious Dance workshop in Mountain View, California. Open Floor is a way for anyone to experience the joy of dancing and the support and resource of movement as a mindfulness practice. Find out more at https://openfloor.org/