CRUTCH | A Film by Sachi Cunningham and Chandler Evans

Wielding crutches and a skateboard, Bill Shannon glides down streets, alternating between moves that are part break-dance, part skate-trick, part gymnastics and pure artistry. In his wake, he inevitably leaves behind a sea of turned heads and astonished faces. And while he seemingly defies physics and gravity, Bill’s unique movements are just the tip of the iceberg.

Employing a kinetic tapestry of 8mm ‘70s film, Hi-8 and VHS tapes from the ‘80s, mini-DV tapes from the ‘90s, and stunning HD footage from the 2000s, CRUTCH documents Bill’s extraordinary journey: the history of Bill’s medical odyssey and his struggles with chronic pain, the evolution of his crutch dancing and skating, his rise to become a world-renowned performance artist, and his transformation from an angry skate punk to an unlikely family man.

CRUTCH is not your typical, feel good disability story. Bill is not asking for sympathy, and he sometimes has trouble getting it. He’s not interested in being likeable, and he often succeeds. He’s not interested in being a hero, and yet he falls into that role. He’s first and foremost an artist, struggling to express himself. His work is raw and powerful, intended to provoke rather than inspire.

In the early 90’s, at the Art Institute of Chicago, Bill began his first experiments with street performance. His friend filmed him dancing on crutches in front of the courthouse steps. First he executed some amazing crutch tricks for the onlookers. Then he slumped down onto the sidewalk. Nearby pedestrians, who hadn’t witnessed Bill’s prowess on crutches, rushed to help him back onto his feet, while the seated audience watched the whole episode unfold with a mixture of confusion, humor and discomfort.

Was Bill being unfair and taking advantage of people who act on the Good Samaritan impulse to help? Yes. Had he baited people into aiding him? Yes. But he had also managed to capture something that is invisible to able-bodied people—the false assumptions that are often made in public about persons with disabilities. CRUTCH follows Bill’s decade long struggle to find a way to fairly present those same revelations to a live audience.

Born to Marxist parents, Bill was taught early on to question the status quo at every turn. When he was diagnosed with a rare hip disease (Legg Calve Perhes) at the age of 5, Bill’s parents took him to nine different doctors before they found one that would treat him without surgery. Instead of hip replacements, Bill was confined to braces and crutches. Later, when he was faced with the same choice in his 20’s, between surgery and crutches, Bill still chose crutches.

There is a method to his madness. Bill’s mother was an ER nurse who knew first hand the dangers involved in hip replacement surgery. She knew that, even in best-case scenarios, hip replacements only last 10 years. 35 years later, despite the chronic pain he suffers, Bill still appreciates that his parents defied the medical establishment. And Bill has applied that same iconoclasm to his life, his work and his disability.

With no role models to look to, Bill created an original, crutch-assisted skateboard and break dance style. He rose to become an underground hip-hop dance legend know as “Crutch Master” and was hired to choreograph for Cirque du Soleil.

Bill’s interactions with strangers served as daily reminders that, no matter his level of dexterity, a man on crutches can still be perceived as a mere cripple. In response, his performance experiments evolved and he began to find an outlet among some of the most prestigious art venues around the world, including the Sydney Opera House, the Tate Modern in London, and the Chicago MOCA.

Bill’s dream to allow audiences to witness the unspoken assumptions endured by disabled people came true in 2010 in NYC. Bill created a performance piece called Traffic, in which he loaded his theater audience onto a tour bus so that they could follow him down Broadway to witness the dichotomy of his world: at times seen as a superhuman and at other times perceived as a cripple in need. When two men, unbidden and unprovoked, rushed to help Bill descend some stairs, the bus burst into laughter at the absurdity of the act.

Without meaning to, Bill is an icon and inspiration for those with disabilities. His in-your-face, skate punk attitude resonates with the disability community’s aversion to the condescension and sympathy “able-bodied” people offer. His performances evoke and expose the secret and alienating prejudices, which all disabled people encounter. Bill has turned the tables. By the end of the documentary journey the audience is part of Bill’s enlightened tour bus of coconspirators and instead of being merely an artist with a disability, he has become an artist who reveals the secret assumptions that people make about disabilities.