Cultural heritage and the unseen community

This chapter examines the significance of community recognition in the context of the claim that disabled dance exists as a specific art form based on and carrying forward its own cultural heritage. Employing international legal conventions on the protection of cultural heritage as a framework of analysis, the chapter investigates how cultural heritage communities are formed and recognized. It explores the way in which the law mediates the relationship between cultural heritage communities and social, political and economic value. In the specific context of disabled dance, the chapter considers whether there is such a thing as an unseen community and whether the unseen community is also an absent community for the purposes of cultural heritage recognition and protection.