Theatre and Dance major explores autism representation through dance

Abigail Rahz ’25 used their Independent Study project to push the limits of what can be represented in dance. A theatre and dance major at The College of Wooster, Rahz noticed a lack of representation of autistic people and their experiences in the world of dance and sought to change this with their I.S. Through a combination of stage combat, dance, and acting, the final piece was a unique and powerful piece of art that represented the struggles that autistic people face in social situations, along with the unique strengths and perspectives they contribute. “It was through the effort of weaving together different movement techniques that I hoped to create a visually impactful piece that will hopefully stick in the minds of audience members and get them to continue thinking about autistic representation,” Rahz explained.

“It was through the effort of weaving together different movement techniques that I hoped to create a visually impactful piece that will hopefully stick in the minds of audience members and get them to continue thinking about autistic representation.”

—Abigail Rahz ’25

MY I.S. 

Rahz: My Independent Study, titled Tools of the Trade, looks at the idea of accurately portraying lesser-known struggles for autistic individuals in dance, where there isn’t a lot of representation. I created a dance piece to portray these struggles, but I combined modern dance techniques with sword-based stage combat, both to help portray the difficulties autistic people have with social interactions and to make the piece interesting to watch, to hopefully help audiences become interested in autistic representation. 

EXCITING ASPECTS 

Rahz: My I.S. is exciting to me because I am autistic, and I finally got to ‘see’ myself on stage. I love dance and really felt left out due to my autism sometimes, so the fact that I was able to put my (and other individuals’) experiences on stage for people to learn about and hopefully understand, was an incredible opportunity.  

EMPOWERED IN MY FIELD 

Rahz: I think my I.S. allowed me to really challenge what dance is and what can be in a dance piece. Autism representation isn’t new, but the exact aspects I wanted to represent were. I hadn’t seen autism in dance before, so I wanted to know if it was even possible.  

SUPPORTIVE SCOT COMMUNITY 

Rahz: My advisor Naoko Skala, assistant professor of theatre and dance, and Suwatana Rockland, costume designer and costume shop supervisor, were some of the biggest supports for my dance piece and the written portion of my I.S. Both always encouraged me to explore my interests, guided me when I was stuck in the process, and lent a lot of grace when I was struggling with this project. 

MY TAKEAWAYS 

Rahz: I.S. showed me new ways of interacting with the performing arts world. I may never become a Broadway actor or dance in a fancy ballet company, but I can work with schools to create new dance pieces, I can be part of the stage combat community, or I can create dance pieces just for the sake of creating dance. 

WHAT’S NEXT 

Rahz: After graduation, I will be working for Ohio Light Opera this summer as a wardrobe technician. After the summer, I hopefully can stay in Wooster and, along with working for my family’s business, find some way of staying involved with theater and dance. I also plan on finding costume design work in Cleveland, and I’m excited to learn more about stage combat and hopefully can become a certified teacher. 

Posted in Independent Study on May 9, 2025.