Workshop Submissions: Disability Informed Creation in Dance

Workshop Submissions: Disability Informed Creation in Dance with Debbie Patterson and Christopher House

We are now accepting submissions for the Disability Informed Creation in Dance Workshop with Debbie Patterson (WPG) and Christopher House (TO). Submissions are due Monday, March 15, 2021.

This workshop will be hosted by Young Lungs Dance Exchange and Sick + Twisted Theatre from April 12 – 16, 2021 @ 1:00 – 4:00 pm (CST), Online over Zoom.

Overview of Workshop:

This five-day online workshop brings together disabled (Deaf, Crip, mad, sick) and nondisabled dancers, choreographers, movers and makers.

Engaging with the disruptions created by disability, we will use this time to develop connections and remove barriers to collaboration across abilities. Engaging with the disruptions created by Covid, we’ll take advantage of the limitations and opportunities of online meeting. 

The workshop will explore choreographic practice as a way of questioning, examining and expressing the body’s truth and its capacity for radical specificity in relation to time and space. How does the disabled body inform choreographic practice? How does choreographic thinking inform the disabled performer’s practice?

Participants will choreograph and perform each day, working quickly and intuitively on short projects; sharing their work with the group; participating in discussions, and joining in giving and receiving supportive feedback. 

The goal of the workshop is to bring each participant’s intuitive knowledge and curiosity into a productive dialogue with their critical mind. We will approach this in a spirit of rigour that includes lightness and play. Ideally, this workshop will act as a springboard to launch new collaborative relationships among integrated groups of performers.

The workshop is hosted by Debbie Patterson, Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre, and veteran choreographer and mentor Christopher House, former Artistic Director of Toronto Dance Theatre. 

Participants must be available for a short conversation with the facilitators during the week before for the workshop; have access to the internet and a device, preferably a  laptop, for running Zoom; and be able to commit to the full duration of the workshop. 

Who Should Apply:

This program is open to all Manitoban artists and will be conducted in English with ASL interpretation. Non-disabled dancers, choreographers and movers interested in exploring disability-informed movement and Disabled performers interested in expanding their approach to movement in performance creation are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply:

Write to us at sickandtwisted@outlook.com with:

  • Your resume or CV
  • An artist statement that includes:
  • A description of your artistic practice
  • What you hope to get out of this program (or what excites you about this program)
  • Some things you’re artistically curious about right now.

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