Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson rehearsing a Kinetic Light performance at the Whitney Museum. They are both in wheelchairs, locked in an embrace, and Ms. Sheppard, facing us, and her chair are lifted off the ground.(Michael Kirby Smith | The New York Times)

In a first-person essay, dancer and choreographer Alice Sheppard describes her feelings and thoughts as queer woman of color who uses a wheelchair during a performance of her most recent show, DESCENT. Sheppard encourages those who view art created by individuals with disabilities to understand it as nuanced and not solely a political statement. She also rejects a “deficit-based understanding of [her] body.”