In this episode, we talk to Rosie Heafford and Neus Gil Cortés about making accessible work.
Today, there probably isn’t a company or organisation that would say they didn’t want to make accessible work, and yet there are still people excluded from it: be they performers, collaborators or audiences. We talk to two artists about their approaches to making work accessible and get some tips about how we as a sector might do this better.
We begin by asking our guests to talk a bit more about the work that they do before jumping right in to discuss the almost ‘buzzword’ accessibility. What does the word accessible really mean within our art form?
We acknowledge that it is really difficult, if not impossible to create work that’s accessible for everybody and hear about two very different approaches and pieces of work that Rosie and Neus have made as artistic directors and choreographers.
We move on to discuss the audience experience – how do you remove barriers and make the work exciting for all? We talk about different approaches of making with audience members being part of the process from the start, and how creating different versions of the same work gives audiences choices in what, and how they would like to experience it.
Naturally, the conversation reflects on the pandemic and how practices for creating had to change in the studio. We discuss how this allowed for a more collaborative process and even opened new doors to creating work for the digital stage.
We speak about the importance of describing what the experience is going to be like for audiences, listening to what people need and the importance of taking the onus to make needs clear away from disabled people.
And finally, we talk about what it means to be a disabled leader, what it means to the work and how it affects fellow collaborators and audiences.
Talking Moves is a Greenwich Dance production
Presented by Melanie Precious
Production by Carmel Smith, Kajsa Sundström, Lucy White and Melanie Precious
Recording date: Friday 22 April 2022