Links and Other Organisations of Interest 

Dada-South is proud to work alongside the following disability-related and inspired organisations and projects in the south east.

 

Anjali Dance Company

Anjali is a professional, contemporary dance company, and is one of the first of its kind in the world. All of Anjali's dancers have learning disabilities. The company produces and tours performances and undertakes educational and outreach work. Anjali aims to show that disability is no barrier to creativity.

Anjali Dance Company are based in Banbury in the South East. The company core aims are:

• To create original dance works of artistic distinction, performed by professional dancers with learning disabilities, and presented to the widest possible audience.

• To raise the profile of work by dancers with learning disabilities and Anjali Dance Company by touring nationally and internationally and to be a model of good practice in managing, portraying and promoting disabled dance.

• To challenge society's preconceptions and prejudices and encourage integration and inclusion of people with learning disabilities within the wider world of dance and society.

• To provide positive role models for people with learning disabilities, initiate and develop new possibilities in dance and, through an integrated education programme, encourage and enable people with learning disabilities to train and achieve excellence in dance.

• To advocate, inform and contribute to debates concerning disability dance.

For more information, please visit www.anjali.co.uk/

 

StopGAP Dance Company

StopGAP is an integrated professional contemporary dance company which has dancers with and without disabilities. A Regularly Funded Organisation (RFO) of Arts Council England, StopGAP is the UK's top integrated dance company working on the small-to-middle scale and leads this field across the World.

Vibrant, at times tender, and frequently funny, StopGAP presents dance performances in both traditional theatres and rural community venues.

There is something for everyone as the dancers performances range from striking character work, to pure movement pieces, from the incredibly accessible and highly entertaining, to the challenging and provocative.

Everyone in the company is equally passionate about enabling anyone to have a go, and so StopGAP leads a dynamic range of workshops and participation projects. It also provides a limited number of training and mentoring opportunities.

For more information, please visit www.stopgap.uk.com

 

Signdance Collective

Signdance Collective seeks to merge several artistic disciplines together. Although they are a company of disabled and non-disabled artists, they are not trying to create work to enlighten people about the issues surrounding disability, so in that sense they are not dealing with social realism. But rather they are seeking to explore the creative possibilities that a disability suggests.

A hundred years ago a statement like the above would not have been possible; the fact that they are able to do this now says volumes about the new and fragile freedoms that artists for example have gained. A new art movement has grown in the United Kingdom, one that the SDC is proud to belong to. The disability arts movement has been coined as "The last avant-garde". Signdance Collective's work is seen as being at the cutting edge of new work in Europe. The performances are a mix of  Signdance, film and  live original music composition. 'Signs Of Brilliance' Time Out London

The company tour 28 weeks of the year and is led by a team of Deaf  and Disabled artists working with a broad range of contemporary artists from around the world.

For more information, please visit  http://sites.google.com/site/signdancecollective/home

 

The Freewheelers Theatre Company

The Freewheelers Theatre Company brings disabled and non-disabled actors and supporters, production teams and the local community together.

The Freewheelers use theatre and dance, wheelchair and voicebox technology, multimedia, animations, puppets and shadows to create innovative work. They work collaboratively, surprise people and challenge perceptions. They don't like barriers, rules or conventions.

For more information, please visit www.southwark.tv/Freewheelers/FWSHOME.asp

 

DisabilityArtsOnline

dao exists to showcase disability and deaf arts, profile artists and to offer informative critical evaluation, serving the development of disability arts.

dao is fuelled by disabled and deaf artists, performers, writers and musicians working across art forms with a passion for saying something relevent about disability and impairment. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes reflective, sometimes angry, often questionning and insightful, disability arts is a relatively new art form which has a unique perspective on the arts afforded by disabled people.

dao originated in 2002 as a section on Council England's website, given over to profiling disability arts events, organisations and artists. Over the last four years, with funding from Arts Council England dao has built up a vast body of discussion, reviews, interviews, profiles, blogs and resources including a chronology of the history of disability arts in the UK.

For more information, please visit www.disabilityartsonline.org.uk

 

Creative Futures

Creative Futures is a unique not for profit organisation, bridging the gap between the community arts and the professional arts sectors in the South East. We provide talented marginalised* artists and writers opportunities to earn income from their creative work.

We give those excluded by society the chance to reintegrate through their own talents by providing training, support, exhibiting and publishing opportunities, selling and promoting their work at the highest levels. We raise the profile of individual artists/writers and the organisations they access, whilst challenging public stereotypes of marginalised people.

For more information, please visit www.creativefutures.info/ 

 

No Handbags Theatre Unlimited

No Handbags creates visually striking performance based experiences that are emotionally engaging and blur the boundary between performer and audience.

The company of performers with learning disabilities aims to challenge traditional perceptions of theatre and facilitate the artistic expression of non conventional artists.

For more information, please visit www.nohandbags.co.uk

 

 

Carousel

Carousel inspires people with learning disabilities to achieve their artistic ambitions.
We are guided by principles of:

• Striving for artistic excellence
• Ensuring high quality activities
• Working in genuine collaboration with others
• Challenging perceptions of what art is and who can create it.

We approach projects and collaborations by drawing on our considerable expertise and integrity to develop innovative and sustainable work

Carousel has 28 years of experience in managing arts projects by and for people with a learning disability.

For more information, please visit http://carousel.org.uk/

 

Sync South East

Sync South East is a leadership development programme designed to support and develop Deaf and disabled people and disability arts organisations and projects in the South East of England so that they can reach their true potential.

Two programmes are running, one for individuals and one for organisations.

For more information, please visit http://syncsoutheast.co.uk.contentcurator.net/

 

Chance to Dance

Chance to Dance is the only adult integrated dance group in Portsmouth and is for able bodied dancers and people with disabilities.

The group was formed in 1994 after an open workshop with CandoCo, and in response to an expressed need for a regular dance experience for people with physical disabilities, some of whom have learning difficulties.

Chance to Dance takes part in community dance performances such as INTEGRATE which brings together the best of local disability dance and mainstream community dancers. They also took part in Footsteps, a city wide day of dance, part of the city's Millennium celebrations. They are increasingly involved with training dancers, students and care workers in the art and benefits of dancing for everyone.

For more information, please visit http://www.c2d.org.uk/

 

Outside In

Outside In was set up in 2006 to offer opportunities for marginalised artists.

The main vehicle for Outside In is a biennial open art competition. 

Work will be selected for exhibtion from entries and judged by a panel of expert judges.  It offers a series of awards and an opportunity for the award winners to have either a residency or a solo exhibtion. 

Outside In is trying to create a level playing field where access to the art world is possible for all who create.

Our aim is not to turn people into ‘artists', but to challenge the art world to embrace and make itself accessible to a wider range of individuals and ways of making.

For more information, please visit http://www.outsidein.org.uk/About

 

Project Art Works

Through responsive and collaborative practice, Project Art Works conducts a wide range of visual art based projects with people who have complex and high support needs.

The organization is artist led and its programmes of work embrace and address the social, cultural and political forces that both enable and disable children, young people, adults, families and carers affected by neurological impairment.

It is an artist-led charitable company, based in Hastings, East Sussex . Many of the young people and adults with whom we work have multiple impairments and require support in all areas of their lives. They are typically excluded from participation in high quality arts activities and are rarely involved in making decisions about their lives. We develop projects that support them in communicating and expressing their opinions and ideas through art, and that dismantle some of the highest barriers to rights and equalities faced by people with complex needs. Our pioneering approach to art, to disability and to working in partnership with organisations and individuals involved in the lives of people with complex needs is unrivalled in the UK. For more information, please visit www.projectartworks.org

 

If you would like your project to be featured in this section, please contact Dada-South.