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In this latest evolution for Stopgap Dance Company, the creatives of Lived Fiction generate a performance that puts dance within the reach of the audience. Marked by the energy of the individual dancers that have contributed to the movement and the purposeful choreography combining both sensitivity and possibility. Lived Fiction is a montage driven by the enterprise and future of inclusion.
Discover more in this blog by Co-Artistic Director Lucy Bennett.
A black and white photo of three dancers in a diagonal line away from the camera. In the front right, Cambodian wheelchair dancer Nadenh leans his weight forward and stretches one arm down to touch the floor, as the other grips the wheel of his manual wheelchair. In the middle, Christian, a white non-disabled male dancer, crouches low in a compact running position facing the side. At the back and left is Emily, an East Asian person with hair in two high buns either side of her head is in the same position as Christian, but facing forward. Slightly blurred in the right background is Mo, a small statured Disabled Black woman, leaning forward in her wheelchair.
As a young choreographer I always said I never wanted to make a piece about the process.
So, what happens when you end up in your forties and you feel that what the industry needs is an inclusive dance production that is not only inclusive in its casting but in its access for its audiences? You throw out the narratives, characters, and metaphors. You get yourself a talented group of diverse individuals, a dance floor, and a stage manager/access Coordinator. You set up access riders and a tea station. You plan absolutely nothing, but secretly plan absolutely everything and you pray the process is enough to keep your audience entertained.
Lived Fiction is the latest evolution for Stopgap.
Our first Evolution was in the late nineties when founding Artistic Director Vicki Balaam invested in Chris Pavia, a young dancer with Down Syndrome. Our ‘integrated dance company’ contemporaries had always stated that they would not work with anyone who could not stay on the same intellectual page as their creatives and collaborators. Nothing like picking a fight to get something going Vicki! Stopgap became the first dance company to employ learning Disabled dancers.
Our second evolution was in 2011, when we began devising our own inclusive choreography led by either myself or Chris Pavia (remember the one who apparently couldn’t stay on the same intellectual page, turns out he’s got his own book).
Lived Fiction is our latest evolution. More than ever this development is driven by our audiences and our obsession with using inclusion, access, and equity as a source of artistic invention and creativity.
A close up of Senior Dance Artist Hannah Sampson's face as she reaches diagonally up to toward the camera, hand blurred foreground, with her gaze following. Hannah is a white learning Disabled person who has Down syndrome, she has blonde hair tied back and wears a light blue t-shirt.
When Co-Artistic Director Laura and I first started out in our twenties we were told by our inclusive elders that by hiring Disabled dancers and putting them on the best stages around the world more Disabled dancers would train and work professionally. We now know and should have known back then – if Disabled people are not in the audience that theory does not work. Another fight? If so, one we should have started a long time ago.
I don’t know how other choreographers work; I’ve been too happily sheltered by Stopgap. But how I work is to think about things for a long time, years to be honest. sometimes I research, but not really. When the moment comes, I switch my light on, and the zeitgeist offers up relevant sources of learning, images, ideas, and dreams. I then see what lands, what stays with me, and I trust my instincts. . . I think I can only do this because for the last 15 years I’ve been choreographing in the same environment, an inclusive one (Lucky me check out my previous blog on being lucky).
For Lived Fiction, we simply let the ‘access for audiences’ and the ‘practices of inclusive dance’ sit in the studio together and chat, turns out they have a lot in common. Essentially Lived Fiction is a love affair between inclusive dance and creative access. At times the audio is prioritised, at times the care of the audience is the focus and sometimes the visual is given space to breathe.
A crisp black and white photo of dancers Mo and Christian during a duet. Mo, a short-statured Disabled Black woman, kneels up and proudly holds her right arm across her chest to her heart, facing front she gazes out and across to the left of the image, her chin raised. Hidden slightly behind her, Christian, a tall non-disabled white man sits with his head bowed behind Mo's shoulder, he frames Mo with a stretched arm to her left, supporting his weight, and his feet to Mo's right.
Stopgap will continue to evolve and share. In fact, sharing is why we evolve because it pushes us to explore what can we offer next to the industry. But before we get tangled up in what is next, we need to put our current learning into all our shows and experiences. We then might even layer in all those narratives, characters, and metaphors we love so much. Because if there is one thing, we have learnt there is not just one way of doing ‘creative access’.
A banner of monotone supporter logos: Arts Council England, ALL Institute, DANCING project, Maynooth University, European Union European Research Council, DanceEast, The Point Eastleigh, University of Surrey, Dance Ireland, The Leche Trust.
The project DANCING has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme (grant agreement No. 864182.” If this amendment is made, I can also sign off on this banner.