Stopgap Dance Company is a world renown collective of Deaf, Disabled, neurodivergent, and non-disabled artists, who regularly break from tradition to present refreshing and ground-breaking work as a movement for change. Lived Fiction is their latest work which is playing at the Brighton Festival on Tuesday 14th May and other dates including London’s Southbank Centre later in September
Tell us about what audiences can expect from Lived Fiction
We would like the audience to feel dance differently. We hope to bring the audience closer to the dance and us closer to the audience and we do that through what we call embedded creative access for audiences – specifically Disabled audiences. By describing the dance, music and what the dancer is experiencing through words, sounds and creative captions we hope to create a shared dance experience that welcomes everyone into Stopgap’s world.
Lived Fiction is a culmination of Stopgpap’s past, our present and hopes for the future. It is our most ambitious and personal work to date. Audiences can expect to feel welcomed, and supported to experience the show how they choose. There’s lots of information on our website with lots of resources such as a Visual Story and Sonic Story to explore more before coming to the performance live.
The show is part of a research project around EU law and disability, how did you go about weaving some of the findings into the production?
We were part of a larger project that was researching EU law and Disabled people’s right to cultural activities. The funding enabled us to set up focus groups to feedback on their experiences of our embedded creative access. We have done this in previous projects but it was particularly useful to have someone outside of Stopgap and not involved in dance leading on collecting the responses. The research team gave us the space to create the show we wanted to which organically came out of the process. The research is still ongoing as the final paper is yet to be released and features much of the dancers and access consultants interviews during the process of Lived Fiction.
How does your creative process work once you’re in the rehearsal room, do you have a set idea of what you’re going to do or does the show evolve as rehearsals go on?
I arrive with a concept and usually mood boards and visual references for my collaborators. I plant a lot of seeds in the beginning through creative tasks and movement improvisation. We have a lot of time to let things settle into place and with this comes the hope we can grow something stronger. The process needs a huge amount of trust and this may be why people stay with the company for many years. We build methods, processes and often themes that we revisit with each production. There is a vast amount of movement remnants, text and even whole scenes that don’t make the final edit. Although I always have a vision in my head of what the production will look and feel like – I am not always sure as to how we will get there – that is part of the work and something we do together.
What are some of the things you’re most proud of that Stopgap has achieved over its near thirty year history?
My first stage production Artificial Things is currently one of the six dance works to be studied at GCSE level. In 2017 Artificial Things I reimagined the work with film director Sophie Fiennes as a dance film and won ‘Best Screen Choreography’ at DanceScreen in 2019. Artificial Things the film was included in The Guardian as one of five best dance works of 2020. It was a timely work just before the pandemic hit, set in a ghostly empty shopping centre – it almost predicted something. It also captures our founding artists working together in their last work together before renowned Disabled dancer Dave Toole passed away.
My Co Artistic Director Laura Jones and I are just starting to allow ourselves to feel a little pride at this moment in time. It feels that for the last 20 years we have been building up to this moment in time, when the rest of the industry wakes up to the value of tuning into Diverse artists and nurturing an inclusive culture.
What do you hope anyone who sees the show will take from it?
The potential and enterprise of Inclusion and Diversity.
Lived Fiction from Stopgap Dance Company will be playing at The Brighton Festival on 14th May, Southbank Centre as part of the Unlimited festival on 4th September, The Lowry Salford on 17th October and DanceEast Ipswich on 15th November. For more info go to www.stopgapdance.com
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