I'm grateful for the raising of this issue. It's loaded with big questions about how we change aesthetic and cultural norms and how art and society evolves. Article19's short and to the point questions imply it's very simple and straightforward to just all change. In one way I totally agree. It should be that simple. But since that's not the world we have belonged to, there's a lot that needs to change and artistic directors and dancers, just like disabled artists, but with more onus, have to find creative paths through a changing landscape.
If we forced integration of disabled artists across the spectrum of current dance companies and their various artistic directors, there would probably be a lot of pain and heartache for all concerned and some very bad and non-inclusive art. Of course there could also be some great art too.
Being taught by a disabled dancer or dancing in work choreographed by a disabled choreographer should also be part of the conversation. I'm thinking about different ways we can exchange and learn from each other, challenge aesthetic norms and shift the power base. I'm sure we could make some beautiful and meaningful dance through working inclusively, but we have to learn how to.
In the new and, I believe already emerging, landscape, I imagine companies led by disabled choreographers and directors who may or may not have come through current dance companies. There are already disabled dance artists on the scene who could lead mainstream dance companies. They are coming in from the margins with rich experience and the resources of the hungry and I think these artists are already making an impact.
When the issue of cultural entitlements for people with disability first came up I attended two relevant SAC and ACE conferences. I tried to imagine our dancers doing class and pushing their physical boundaries alongside dancers with a pronounced physical difference. How could it work that we could all be equally challenged and achieving, without huge frustration all round? We would need to rethink our training and ask what dancing is and could be. What about the work; would a disabled performer get stuck in certain kinds of roles, or not being used by choreographers who were intimidated by this new challenge. we would need choreographers to learn how to work inclusively and discover and support disabled choreographers. That's a lot of change.
A breakthrough moment was seeing a collaboration that Greyeye offered as part of the second conference when two RADA graduates and two disabled actors performed a scene from an Oscar Wilde play. The casting was perfect and all four were very able actors. I couldn't imagine it being half as good with non-disabled actors. How great to have such a range of casting options, like including the whole world. Ping! The penny drops.
We are all on a spectrum of abilities and disabilities of course. Everyone is differently abled. Could it be so different and difficult?
I had been inspired by first seeing CandoCo and it helped to know such an amazing performer as David Toole was out there. I didn't think I wanted us to become an 'integrated dance company' with that main mission and responsibility. I don't have the special knowledge that Celeste and Adam acquired. I more wondered how the whole world picture could change and we could all arrive at a different way of being and seeing. What role can we all play in changing that societal and artistic landscape?
Artistic directors are always looking for the best performers, within our own perception. Mostly young people with disability still don't get offered possibilities to imagine that they might want to be performers, so few come forward to participate and demand those college places in our Lottery-funded, fully- accessible, mainstream dance schools. Inclusion in education from school to post-graduate level for aspiring disabled artists is something we can all play a part in. Dance companies can definitely make an impact through finding role models, introducing and sharing integrated practise and opening doors. We can also support the work of disabled artists in various ways. As a venue-based company, SDT is working to include disabled artists in our dance programming,(performances and a disabled dance artists residency) and improving accessibility backstage.
When the company started work on Angels of Incidence, choreographed by Adam Benjamin, no Scottish dancers with disability came forward to audition and we ended up with two Australians and one American and only one per former form the UK. These performers all brought skills and qualities that blended with and enhanced those of our dancers. They also brought different - and more - life experience, since three of them were older than our dancers. This, of course, was great.
We had two excellent teachers for class in our then Assistant Director, Michael Popper and guest teacher Sean Feldman. They each took a different approach to teaching integrated classes, feeling their way. We learned what extra things we needed to think about. The SDT dancers had their normal class either slow down or significantly change so they were challenged and sometimes struggled to adapt. They were willing, but it wasn't easy. It was hard for the guest artists to adapt things quickly enough.
We had breakthroughs. We invented Caroline's box so that she could get out of her big electric chair and move with greater freedom. One insecure young SDT dancer came into his own during the process of working with our generous, self assured guest artists, which was wonderful to see. I think, also, that we all gradually grew to realise that making integrated dance was not a mystery requiring highly specialised skills and quite a few of us got curious to try it ourselves.
Angels of Incidence not just the the creation and tour of a work over 6 months, it was also the journey we all went on together that has led Scottish Dance Theatre and Caroline Bowditch to where we are now. Caroline is our Dance Agent for Change, a two year post funded by the Scottish Arts Council. She co-created a duo, which started life in our educational SDT Interactives and immediately became part of the main performance programme we toured last season. This week Caroline is finally presenting a research paper on the impact of Angels of Incidence.
In the meantime a disabled dancer wrote in to audition and I invited him along. Marc Brew's fantastic creative skills and performance strengths came through in the improvisations and performance tasks, where you could see all the other interesting auditions eagerly seeking the chance to work with him. But when it came to our current repertoire it was clear that the work would need to be specially adapted to encompass a dancer in a wheelchair and that we would need to start from scratch together on new work if Marc were to join the company.
I didn't give Marc the job, but he came, shortly afterwards, on a Future Leaders placement, via Suffolk Dance. This stay has been extended with an Associate Director Fellowship for another year. During this time Marc will co-create and perform in NQR, (Not Quite Right), along with Caroline Bowditch, (also to perform in the work) and myself.
There are will be new problems to address, Like dealing with injuries and double casting work. This is a new challenge with different movers. Does it change the work? We have sometimes come across this issue of changing readings in relation to, say, a female dancer standing in for an injured male dancer or vice versa. I guess with new work we can discuss and prepare for such eventualities as injury/illness and sort out understudying as the piece is being created.
We will take NQR out as part of the company's national tour in Spring 2010 and continue on this journey of discovering what happens next.
Caroline and Marc are helping us ask and face the difficult questions. They are also working, highly successfully on defining their own future directions and are very much in demand as independent makers and performers. So perhaps they are forging different future paths for dance that mainstream dance will wish it had not missed out on? Perhaps in the 21st century it is the telling of everybody's stories that audiences will hunger for, told in different and inclusive ways. If so, artists like Marc and Caroline could help us to get to get there in realising what's possible.
Janet Smith
Artistic Director
Scottish Dance Theatre
Editors Letters
The Vexed Question
Published Thursday, 26 November, 2009 |
