What is Hypermobility?
A somewhat transparent purple to blue infographic overlays a dark blue background with yellow squiggles. White text at the top poses the question: what is hypermobility? Below it white text reads: hypermobility is a greater than normal range of motion in one or more joints. Widespread hypermobility affects 4 or more joints in the body. Hypermobility can be acquired by overstretching ligaments and other connective tissues, and/or it can be genetically inherited.
Widespread hypermobility is a diverse, multi-systemic experience that is omnipresent in dance but unsupported and exploited by it. Hypermobile people with varying Disabled and non-disabled identities are everywhere in the world, but without tailored accessibility and care resources. The work that Audre does is harm reduction; she repurposes artistic, somatic, and scientific knowledge to serve Hyp+ autonomy and quality of life. Hypermobile is named as an identity not to show deference to medical and diagnostic systems that withhold quality of life care, but as a political choice to lend visibility to an extremely underdiagnosed, neglected, and specific disability: widespread hypermobility (WH), sometimes termed hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD) by the Medical Industrial Complex (MIC).