Dancer redefines movement and advocates for inclusion

CHICAGO — A Chicago man is redefining what it means to be a dancer.

Robby Williams has been dancing and performing on stages as long as he could remember. He’s been passionate about moving his body to jazz, swing and tango. It was a perfectly choreographed career until a fateful day in 2018 when stray bullets flew through the car he was driving.

The incident left him paralyzed from the waist down.

The legs that once allowed him to swoop, dip and turn were now motionless. In the months that followed, his mind kept returning to tango and he began to wonder, if he could recreate that connection from the waist up.

“It’s just having the permission and ability to explore what movement looks like,” he said.

Fast forward to today , Williams is back onstage and redefining what it means to be a dancer.

“My disability is not the tragedy. The mechanism from which my disability came from is tragic, but my disability is not tragic,” he said. “It’s just a new aspect of my body and now I need to learn what I can do with it.”

He calls it physically integrated dance and is creating choreography and techniques for all types  of bodies and abilities.

More information at

• https://www.robbyleewilliamsiii.com
• https://www.reinventability.com/who-we-are
• https://momentadances.org/counterbalance-2024

Through his work performing and teaching with Momenta Dance Company, Tango 21 Dance Theatre and Reinventability , Williams has exposed dozens of people to an entirely new world of movement.

It’s that mentorship that now brings Williams as much joy as dance itself. And it has pushed him to advocate for other artists through a fellowship with 3 Arts Bodies of Work.

“With every new avenue of movement you can see people’s eyes light up, the smiles. And they’re just having a blast,” he said.

Like tango, the beauty lies not in the steps, but the connection between dancers.

This weekend, Momenta Dance Company will present “Counterbalance,” a performance showcasing the artistry of physically integrated and inclusive dancers, like Williams.

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