Overview

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:

1. Your resume or CV

2. 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.