David DeSilva
Carina Ho, center, performs under the moniker Onikho.
Carina Ho, an Oakland-based artist who performs under the moniker Onikho, didn’t start dancing professionally until a car accident nearly five years ago left her without mobility in her lower body at 26.
“I never expected to become a professional dancer after becoming paralyzed,” says Ho, a presenter and performer at Madison’s seventh annual Disability Pride Festival at Tenney Park on July 27. “It really opened my mind to what was possible and what creativity can do to widen possibilities.” On July 26, Ho will lead a workshop called Movement For All: Exploring Inclusivity in Dance at 6:30 p.m. at Union South. It’s open to people of all abilities and at every level of dance ability and experience.
As a child, Ho trained in ballet and piano and continued in adulthood to practice them as a creative outlet. In early 2015, Ho started classes with AXIS Dance Company, a mixed-ability dance and advocacy troupe in Oakland. At first, she was skeptical of her dancing ability, but later she was hired as an apprentice and worked her way up to a full-time company member, performing and touring with the group for two years.
As a dancer, Ho uses her arms and upper body as the main source of movement. As a teacher, she demonstrates how to create a similar feel as an able-bodied dancer.
“If someone’s jumping, in the traditional sense I can’t jump, but the motion of a jump is to go up and down, so I’ll find that movement somewhere else in my body, for example in my head,” Ho says. “You can see that we’re both striving for the same aesthetic quality, even though we’re not doing the same movement literally.”
As the musical headliner for the Disability Pride Festival, Ho will perform “cinematic electro-blues.” The free festival, hosted by local poet, spoken word artist and community organizer Ti. S Banks, includes workshops on improving accessibility in downtown Madison, adaptive yoga, and a presentation by Nigerian disabilities activist Folajogun Akinlami. Milwaukee blues outfit Jonny T-Bird and the MPs and local DJ Cooper Talbot share the bill.
Ho says public events that welcome and celebrate people with disabilities are important. “[With] a disability, life can be more complicated, and it’s really easy to be more isolated and ashamed,” she says. “Our culture does not help with that and there’s very little positive reinforcement in the mainstream media. Events like this are important to help change that.”
