Dancing Differently?
The three-day conference, 'Dancing Differently?' held at the Renaissance Hotel in Manchester on 8-10 February 2002, was the culmination of three years research and activity by two dance organisations, the Foundation for Community Dance and Dance Initiative Greater Manchester supported by funds from the Arts Lottery A4E main programme
Both organisations, from their different perspectives (national and regional), have a stated commitment to increase access to and participation in dance by disabled people for enjoyment, recreation, creative development and as artists in their own right, and wanted to celebrate the achievements in this area of dance activity in the UK by bringing together artists, managers, educators and policy makers both disabled and non-disabled to consider and debate the key issues and practices which would take the work forward into the future.
Recent years have seen a genuine growth in the number of disabled people choosing to engage with dance, there are many positive examples of how disabled people have made dance a central part of their lives and have overcome a multitude of barriers to do so. This has developed in a context where, as a result of the work of disabled people themselves and the organisations that work with them, the visibility, voices and rights of disabled people have more prominence than ever before and in the arts, the issues of access are increasingly reflected in policy and funding priorities.
We planned the conference in collaboration with disabled people, disabled artists and disability organisations. In the process we were made acutely aware of the many barriers still facing disabled people from accessing dance in the ways they want - some of these are personal, social and attitudinal: some are about physical access to places where dance happens. So as well as marking what has been achieved, we wanted to face up those issues and consider together what needed to be in place in the future to ensure the right of disabled people to have dance as a life and career option, when, where and however it feels right for them.
The Aim of the Conference
The overriding aim of the conference was to bring people together to positively share their knowledge, skills and experiences about dance and disability.
We asked people to speak or contribute who have a real commitment to the overriding aim of the conference, to the arts, dance in particular and to developing practices which offer disabled people not only access to dance but real choices about how they want to engage with dance as participants, audiences, dancers, choreographers, teachers, leaders and managers.
We recognised that for everyone attending the conference, in whatever capacity, there were things to learn and preconceptions and barriers to be overcome. We recognised that everyone would come with their own perspectives, some of which would be based on deeply felt and for some, unshakeable beliefs about how the world is. Also that we were all attending with different needs, different levels of knowledge and skill and different ambitions about where people would want to be in the future.
We wanted to use the conference to work together to develop new, different and perhaps more effective frameworks and solutions.
Whilst as organisers we accepted that there might be fundamental disagreements, we hoped that the conference would seek positive solutions (short, medium and longer term). In other words it was an exploration of where the field is currently and our aspirations for the future.
Underpinning Principles
We chose to operate from a few underpinning and perhaps idealistic concepts:
- disability is a social construct, not a medical 'problem'
- difference and variance is what is 'normal' in the world - problematic in dance because of the dominance within the sector of notions of 'ideal' bodies, youthfulness, technical skill and athletic virtuosity
- disabled people are no more homogeneous than any other sector of the population and have the rights to the same range of options as everyone else
- that everyone and every body can dance with intention and purpose and that disability becomes a source of additional possibilities rather than a deviation from the norm.
We also accept that there are still a number of barriers to including and involving disabled people within dance.
These barriers range from: lack of political will at all levels (including arts organisations and venues), contradictory legislation (e.g. Health and Safety versus Disability Rights), barriers to access throughout formal and informal education and across the arts, cultural barriers within dance about who can be a dancer and what dance is, few regularly visible role models, cultural differences within wider society around disability and, for some individuals, pain barriers.
We sought to include other issues that impede access for disabled people to a wide range of activities - geography, transport, buildings, information and information formats, lack of support networks, employment and so on. These issues present themselves in specific ways within dance and the arts and the conference sought to touch on all of them at some point through individual contributions and as part of the discussions that took place.
The conference was structured with a number of 'set' pieces - formal presentations, debates and seminars; additionally we built in 'open' spaces to allow delegates to raise and discuss issues not covered or which might have developed as the result of particular interventions as the conference progressed. Importantly we also recognised that, a three day conference, however significant it might turn out to be, is only a stepping stone on a much longer journey in the aspirations for disabled people, dance and society as a whole.
We are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed in whatever way to making the conference possible and would like to thank them for the generous way in which they gave their time, ideas, contacts and support.
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Animated: Summer 2002