Marc Brew: Finding Power In Disability And Queerness

Marc Brew was only 20 years old when he was in a horrific car crash, killing the other three people in the car and leaving the young ballet dancer unable to walk again. This year, he’s been touring An Accident, A Life, a show created with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui about the incident that fuses dance, theatre and multimedia across Europe. 

“I never thought I’d make a work about the crash that changed my career and life in a matter of seconds,” the queer Australian dancer tells the Star Observer. “I was living and dancing in South Africa, working with a ballet company there and a drunk driver hit our car.”

“To come back after 25 years of dancing in different parts of the world to make an important piece about the determination and power of the human spirit, but also the humour and joy one needs to have to be able to move through challenges, has been quite remarkable to share with an audience.”

An Accident, A Life, starring Marc and directed by collaborator Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, has received a number of 5-star reviews on its tour throughout Europe, with The Guardian praising it as “sensitive, revelatory and cathartic” in a glowing review.  

The show is deeply personal for Marc, and he appreciates that it’s allowed him to fully explore himself. “What’s really wonderful about this piece is that it’s been able to capture all of my identities,” he says. “It has changed in my lifetime, from coming out to exploring my queerness and the way I make art, to having power and ownership over my disability.” 

“In the beginning I used to be quite shy about owning those identities, but now I’m proud of them. And I guess I’m at the age now where I want to be a positive role model for other people, the next generation of disabled, queer audiences and dancemakers.”

Marc continues: “I mean, I was told no, that I couldn’t do dance and that I needed to retrain and do something else. Thankfully I was quite stubborn! But if I had listened to them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I want people to see that this is possible.”

“What’s really important about An Accident, A Life is that it has to challenge and break down those perceptions of what a dancer and performing artist is, or what someone can do with disability. So hopefully, through my and other disabled artists’ work, it’s really showing the next generation and general audiences what’s possible.”

The next generation

Having recently returned to Australia from Scotland as part of the IDEA Dance festival, Marc ran the Our Bodies / Our Stories workshop in Sydney Opera House’s Centre for Creativity across 8 days with a number of performers, including other disabled dancers, to start showing people what’s possible. “It was a wonderful space and experience working with a fantastic group of diverse artists who brought their whole selves to the experience,” says Marc. 

“I feel excited by the openness and the curiosity of the artists I got to work with and how supportive each one was with each other to really explore and share their experiences and try new things,” adds Marc. “Lots of disabled people don’t get this opportunity at all, and it’s hard for us to get into dance courses and tertiary training because the invitation isn’t there.

“It was a really monumental moment to be in this iconic space with these artists and form a community together,” he concludes. “It was an honour to be a part of the festival and to ensure disabled artists of diverse backgrounds are represented and have a place in the dance ecology of Australia.”