Dance and disabled people

National College for Community Dance

DANCE AND DISABLED PEOPLE Pathway to practice for dance leaders working with disabled people

By Isabel Jones

Handbook published by Foundation for Community Dance for people leading dance in community settings and contexts.

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Foreword

3

About Isabel

4

Acknowledgements

6

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1 Introduction

8

2 The social model of disability and beyond: a political context

9

3 Definition of person centred practice: social context

15

4 A principle based approach: my response to person centred practice

17

5 My journey: personal context – how I arrived at a set of principles

21

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1 Introduction

30

2 Dance through the lens of a disabled dance artist

31

3 Methods and tools for delivery of dance sessions

52

a. The Artist’s Journey b. P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S – An 8 step guide 4 Evaluation processes

59

a. Informed choice b. The art of noticing c. Reading body language d. Our nonverbal communication

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Case Studies 1 Isabel Jones: Working with children on the autistic spectrum

75

2 Tom Shakespeare: S/training every muscle

80

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3 Alito Alessi: Interview

82

4 Adam Benjamin and Lisa Simpson: The Simpson Board

88

5 Isabel Jones and Kevin Hodgetts: Living Room – The supported environment

95

Appendix 1: Disability and legislation

104

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!"#$%&'()*%+'$" " " This part of the handbook illum inates som e different ways of delivering dance leading with disabled people. Here, you are offered som e practical ways to sustain your creativity as a dance artist to help you to stay fresh in whatever style or approach you have chosen to take.

There are lots of examples from disabled dancers’ perspectives and I will take you through ‘An Artist’s Journey’, which is informed by the 8 step programme P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S that helps you to recognise what to put in place from the outset to ensure the right conditions for your projects, and offers you a structure to which you can peg your content for sessions and tools to help you cope with inevitable deviations in your sessions away from your planning.

,"-.$*/"%0&')10"%0/"2/$3"'4"."(+3.52/("(.$*/".&%+3% asks: what challenges do disabled dancers experience when they work with a choreographer and as choreographers?

6."70/"8&%+3%93":')&$/; invites you to think about how you shape and develop your work programme from beginning to end with consideration for your creative development as an artist as part of delivering person centred practice

65"<=8=>=7=?=@=>=A provides you with an ‘in the session’ 8 step toolkit for person centred interaction B"@C.2).%+'$"<&'*/33/3 focuses on essential skills needed to deliver P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S, recognising and celebrating the specific observation skills that dancers should have engrained and be able to articulate.

You might consider while reading Part two the following questions:

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!"#$%&'#%()*+#,-.)/+,0(-(++1# # In developing or devising any movement work with disabled people, we often make the mistake of thinking that we should hold all the answers ourselves and we don’t allow time for solutions to emerge collaboratively.

“Sometimes people don’t realise how long it takes for people who use a communication aid to say what they need to say. I think the more time they spend with the person who uses a communication aid, the quicker the communication process is.”

Lisa Simpson How do we initiate and maintain dialogue from the outset, without overloading the other person, but through ‘consulting’, ‘checking in’ and ‘collaborating’?

“The work needs to start way before people even get there to the sessions, it’s about being prepared.

Not everyone’s disability is visible so it is also important to consider what information we need to know to make the session as accessible as possible to all as well as one particular person.”

Caroline Bowditch Here I have picked out our interviewees’ responses to the following question, which are useful and direct suggestions as to how, as dance leaders, we could be confident with including people:

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In my experience of creating in workshops, I find one of the best ways to approach this is to give tasks that create material. Of course this is what most people do but when working with various disabilities it gives the opportunity for people to take the idea and make it work for their body rather than spend the time trying to ‘copy’ some other person’s movement. I think the important thing for me is ownership of what is being created

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I don’t think working with disabled people is rocket science, it just seems to be approached with this great fear. I try to treat everyone exactly the same when teaching. I think that basically when you have a room of disabled people who wish to dance, you have a room of dancers with different possibilities.

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A Foundation for Community Dance Publication

The Foundation for Community Dance is the professional organisation for anyone involved in creating opportunities for people to experience and participate in dance.

The National College for Community Dance is FCDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home for professional development pathways for people delivering dance in community settings and contexts. It delivers courses, seminars, flexible online learning opportunities and advocates for professional development opportunities UK wide and internationally for dance leadership in the community.

Foundation for Community Dance LCB Depot, 31, Rutland Street, Leicester, LE1 1RE Tel: +44 (0)116 253 3453 E-mail: info@communitydance.org.uk Web: www.communitydance.org.uk Company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales no. 2415458 Registered Charity no. 328392