This April, UK-based ensemble Stopgap Dance Company presents Lived Fiction, a new work at Project Arts Centre, Dublin that utilses performances from deaf, disabled, neurodivergent and non-disabled creatives for a work that is deep with compassion for the human condition.
Below, Lucy Glover, Executive Producer at Stopgap Dance Company, Delia Ferri, Professor of Law at Maynooth University, and the Project Arts Centre introduce Lived Fiction.
Lived Fiction was developed as part of DANCING, a European Research Council-funded, interdisciplinary research project exploring how European Union (EU) law can advance the right to culture for people with disabilities, based at the Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology.
In developing Lived Fiction, Stopgap Dance Company wanted to go beyond reasonable accommodation for disabled audiences and embrace Integrated Creative Access, considering access as an artistic element to the work itself.
As a collective of disabled, deaf, neurodivergent and non-disabled allies, the company regularly break from the past and the traditional and thrive on the creativity and potential of an alternative way of doing things.
those working in different disciplines long after the house lights have dimmed.
(Pics: Chris Parkes)
Lived Fiction challenges barriers that continue to make both performing and attending dance more difficult for people with disabilities. In this new work accessibility is considered artistically, not as an afterthought, but intrinsic to a creative vocabulary that combines choreography with audio description, captioning, tactile elements, and responsive sound design.
Stopgap's involvement with the DANCING research team meant at certain points in the process they could open rehearsals to disabled, neurodivergent and deaf stakeholders outside of Stopgap. The company 'nervously prepared for huge changes in direction’ but found instead insight and clear solutions borne out of the lived experience of participants.
Lived Fiction challenges barriers that continue to make both performing and attending dance more difficult for people with disabilities.
This production comes at a time when Project Arts Centre has recently embarked on a four-year journey with Europe Beyond Access - the biggest transnational project in the world supporting disabled and deaf artists. EBA is run by ten high-profile European cultural organisations aiming to share knowledge, empower artists and break the glass ceilings of contemporary dance.
In hosting a work such as Lived Fiction, there are challenges and opportunities for learning that will feed into the programmatic and infrastructural landscape of Project Arts Centre over the next few years.
The hope is that this work will continue to spark conversations between those working in different disciplines long after the house lights have dimmed. This is characteristic of how DANCING aims to disrupt conventional approaches to EU law scholarship, combining legal, empirical and arts-based research to understand the extent to which the protection of the right to take part in culture of people with disabilities and the promotion of cultural diversity intersect and complement each other in the EU legal order.
Stopgap has employed disabled performers for over twenty years and in this time, they have been disturbed by the lack of disabled talent being developed by cultural institutions, dance organisations and local dance schools worldwide. To change this, maximum effort is needed.
In developing Lived Fiction, they have come to realise that Integrated Creative Access is not about simply ‘helping people who face barriers’ but helping everyone. It Is only now, at the end of the process and the start of a tour, that they understand how inviting diverse audiences into their dance world through creative access has broadened cultural participation in all directions.
Watch: Introducing Stopgap Theatre Company
DANCING is premised on the idea that cultural exclusion of people with disabilities has not only engendered their marginalisation but has also entailed a loss for society as a whole. To address this, the organisation supports the implementation of Article 30 of the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which recognises the right of persons with disabilities to take part on an equal basis with others in cultural life.
DANCING's findings so far have shown that the persistence of barriers for people with disabilities means that inclusion continues to be denied to many. They believe that dialogue between artists, policymakers and people with disabilities is fundamental to bring about inclusion for all, as exemplified in Stopgap’s performance.
Lived Fiction is at Project Arts Centre, Dublin on April 12th 2024 - find out more here.
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