Improvising with the pain(s) of endometriosis

This discussion homes in on recent artistic research exploring the meaningful ways the female body voices its own story or honours others’ stories of disease, disability or pain in and through an embodied arts practice. Specifically, the chapter reveals the ways in which March’s own worlds of gendered disability, chronic pain and artistic voice collide by sharing experiences of endometriosis as well as art-making. March invites the reader on a journey into this intersectional realm, where pain is disruptor and improvisation is arbiter; a robust place honouring the reimagining of the body’s relationship to time, space, energy and ultimately, expression. Emerging from a life perspective and art practice rooted in improvisation, she highlights temporalities; physical vocabularies or spatial trajectories; and other artistic elements shaped and birthed from lived body endometriosis experiences. This intimate personal essay entwined with academic scholarship provides an opportunity for reflection and enlightenment on concepts related to crip art practices especially in the context of endometriosis. March questions whether the disruptions and pain of endo and other chronic diseases inform and indeed may inspire artistic innovation, unpacking how art-making and improvisation have welcomed discovery, connection, transformation and healing in the context of her own battle with endometriosis.