I am because you are . . .

 3rd day, Gaele  Comments Off on I am because you are . . .
Apr 202017
 

  

Jenny Sealey spoke about why she places great importance on us as artists creating and controlling the description of our own physicality.

 While the residency focused on Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis, it was this concept of creating and controlling our descriptions that threaded through, and informed all our actions, processes, outcomes.

 We took time out to study ourselves, to think, to feel, to articulate. We worked individually and we worked together, exploring various tools of description, drawing portraits of each other, making body maps, writing, devising and performing work.

 We listened, we spoke, bounced ideas off each other, improvised. There was no time to polish. No place for self-conscious dithering. We were drawing on a huge range of impressive experience and talent. We were figuring out how to respect each other’s descriptions, carry them, translate and interpret them to ensure we were interconnecting.

 It was raw and emotional, vulnerable, powerful.  It was human. There is a saying from Botswana which applies to how this wonderful residency has made me feel –  Motho ke motho ka batho meaning a person is a person because of people –  I am because you are.

Learning to communicate

 3rd day, Rachael  Comments Off on Learning to communicate
Mar 052017
 

Today I also learnt a bit of Auslan.
Theatre, Rehearsal, how to spell my name. Emails. Thank you. Please. Fuck you. Beer. Pub. and Bullshit – which for your information is literally a bull shitting. I love deaf culture.

More importantly I found we were able to communicate, even when I didn’t know auslan we had enough shared vocab and understand and a pen and paper for when we got really stuck. 

Reminder to remember.
Something that I should never forget to do when making a show. Articulate how I want to be described, allow other members of the team to articulate how they want to be described. Particularly for the press.

At the start of a workshop or a process ask everyone what their sign name is, and what pronouns they prefer.

Matt | Break

 3rd day, Matt  Comments Off on Matt | Break
Mar 052017
 

   

I’ve been really excited to be in that place where I’m putting accessibility at the forefront and as part of the creative process rather than an afterthought. As disabled artists we really need to think about how we make work that’s accessible because if we’re not thinking about it there’s no reason for mainstream to consider it.

I’m a ‘learn through doing’ kind of person so doing these workshops has been really beneficial and I’m sure it’s really going to influence the way I make work in the future, which is what I wanted to get out of it.

I’m constantly thinking about everybody’s experience of the artwork I’m making and how can I make that experience more accessible?

I’m also thinking about how different tools for accessibility can change the experience of the work. It’s been really fascinating to experience how audio description could make a work more powerful or less impactful or it can really change how we relate to what we’re seeing.

And it’s been really interesting to work with AUSLAN outside the usual what’s happening on stage and an interpreter thing. It’s been exciting to explore other ways to incorporate sign language into the work.

  

What is the beauty of you?
I haven’t really had a feeling of beauty in my body for as long as I remember but I’ve always thought of myself in a functional sense but I’ve always asked how can I make this or that and that’s where I derive my pride in myself. Continue reading »

Day 3: a celebration

 3rd day, Elizabeth  Comments Off on Day 3: a celebration
Mar 052017
 

Day three was a celebration. I felt I had grown in confidence and chatted with more of the group. These interactions and conversations over tea break and lunch I hope will continue because they have been just as important to me as the residency itself.

This group of artists, who are incredible in their own right, taught me what it looks like to listen, to help without being patronizing, to have fun, to be proud of who we are. I hope as we go our separate ways we continue this conversation, continue encouraging each other to make brilliant accessible work, continue to be friends.
     

Four white walls

 3rd day, Maddie  Comments Off on Four white walls
Mar 052017
 

      Maddies in centre of image wearing black and sitting in a white spinning chair. Eva sits on the right of Maddie.    

Four white walls
form a space
in which safety is created
and relationships are formed
where experience becomes the language
that speaks to our souls.

These four white walls
exist only to support
and when minds are working
hearts and talents collide
and the art that is created
is far too great
to be contained
in these four white walls

so they crumble under the weight
of our true selves
and bear the brunt
of our thick skin
and these four white walls
are barriers no more
yet safety and passion
still burn within.

– Maddie Little/Sexy sexy sexy

Patterns of being human

 3rd day, Eva  Comments Off on Patterns of being human
Mar 052017
 
Our three days of joyous artistry ended with pieces asking me to step back in reflection of their import. I immediately realised the need to deeply consider and to replay the course of mini miracles through my memory lest they slip away.

Such angst! Such need! The purest pleas for understanding struck at my heart.

  
    

Here though, is the awareness that I may be superimposing my own processes on the recalling. Fatigue and the distraction resulting from so many wild ideas in a small space caused my sudden unravelling whilst the group I belonged to formed the structure of the performance. I am grateful for a compassionate cohort. Softness of approach and willingness to accommodate allowed the piece to take full shape. With barely time for a run-through, we were on, our showing reflecting the waves of emotion experienced by all. Then we were off, watching the other journeys unfurl.
With elements of Psychosis on flagrant display, tension and probing questioning littered the scripts as each group of performers brought together their individual musings into collectively unique work. Such diverse characters were represented in the choice of artists with each their own experiences and struggles, each their own questing and discoveries. Each gave their all in a very limited time to offer stories of identity textured with the patterns of being human.

Post

 3rd day, Pony  Comments Off on Post
Mar 052017
 

I’m 7 years old, I’m looking out a window, into a yard, staring at trees, I have no idea who I am, parts of me were forgotten, lost, shamed out of me. My body doesn’t feel real, life does not feel real. I forget where I am supposed to be, who I belong to, where everyone has gone. I don’t feel real, I don’t know how I got here.

How do I know it’s real, that I’m not going to just float away?


I’m 25 years old, I stare at the walls of a room, I’m not sure who I am really. I respond to stimulus around me occasionally. Everything around me keeps shifting and changing, I’m waiting for something. I have always been waiting. I don’t know what it’s is, or where it is. I don’t feel attached to my body. I don’t know how to become attached to it. I have been trying this whole time.

Update on the disability identity crisis

 3rd day, Rachael  Comments Off on Update on the disability identity crisis
Mar 062017
 

I still have a slight disability identity crisis, even with a whole bunch of new friends and knowledge. But what I do know is that I want to be a part of disability culture (I am not sure of the right wording for this but basically I want to help always make things accessible share stories of experiences of disability ect.)

I can not thank the participants enough. For patience, unquestioning acceptance, determination to assist everyone even and make things universally accessible.  

Thank you Jenny for bringing us together. For letting us dance, it was something truly special. 

Being a part of both PIAF Connect residencies with Claire Cunningham and Jenny Sealey, I feel incredibly blessed. 

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