Does Spoken Language Stop Us From (really) Listening?

This January, Geraldine Heaney and I were delighted to be invited to take part in the Theatre for Young Audiences Inclusive Arts Festival in Tokyo Japan. A big part of this was presenting our film ‘Frame’ which we made as part of an Imaginate artist residency, in collaboration with pupils from St Crispin’s School.

The film questions who has the right to make art? which the festival created conversation around, featuring artists, performers, audiences and participants with a wide range of diverse needs. It’s been a nourishing experience and so exciting to meet people from across the globe, all working towards a common goal of making the arts accessible for everyone. Highlights included meeting amazing Serbian inclusive dance company Per .Art, and watching two new sensory performances that are now being made in Japan for young audiences with disabilities.

Moment from ‘Dancing in/with White Books’ by Theatre Planning Network

It was also fascinating to start to understand the Japanese perspective, where the word ‘inclusive’ has not really been used to this point. In many ways, the 2020 Olympics have opened up this conversation and opportunity, as the London games did for the UK in 2012.

Our contribution began with a presentation about Sensory Theatre approaches, for local and international artists, researchers, educators and practitioners. We then hosted a workshop exploring our practices, including work with KOR! Records And Oily Cart.

We were both inspired by how easy it felt to communicate despite the language barriers, particularly when using a sensory approach. It’s made us think a lot about listening.  Sometimes listening is through body language, eye contact or touch. Sometimes it’s about leaving space. In many ways its actually easier to listen more actively when you take away the ability to communicate through language.

Another fascinating aspect of the festival was being absorbed in the many different cultures, D/deaf and hearing. It was exciting to see a performance (‘What Goes Up’ by FTH:K)  that had been translated from South African Sign Language into Japanese sign Language. It made us both think harder about how to open up our creative processes to performers and collaborators with different needs. I have always worked in a sensory/non-verbal way, so until this point has not learnt British Sign Language… looking to the future, it made me question if this is adequate?

Our final contribution was an installation, presenting ‘Frame’ in an interactive way. A group of nursery children collaborated with us to cover a small room in paper. We then projected the film onto it. This was the first time we had shown the film to a young audience and we were excited by the reaction. As the pupils in the film (who are all labelled as having profound autism) are older, it gave them power and status. This sparked lots of ideas for new contexts of showing this work in the future, especially after discussions with programmers about how film/installation may be an accessible performance format for young people with complex needs to allow them to be visible at international platforms. The white room stayed open during the two days so that children and adults could cover it in colourful dots and lines, helping build the art work.

It was great seeing people create and play. Children understood the invitation immediately and adults who appreciated being given the permission. The response to the installation and film was brilliant, lots of inspiring conversations and some really exciting creations made in the room.

We now continue our travels in Japan to explore sensory music, noise and listening experiences. More on this soon!

Huge thanks to Imaginate and St Crispin’s School, particularly the young artists in the film, who we wish could’ve been there with us to show off their work. Thanks to TYA Inclusive Arts Festival, especially Kenjiro and Kaori. Finally thank you to Creative Scotland, and The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, without whom the trip would not have been possible

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Playful Tiger Tour: Guest blog by Jade Adamson

Playful Tiger, which has been made with and for for young audiences who are profoundly autistic and mainly non-verbal, is proving to be both one of the most exciting shows I have been involved in as a performer and one of the most challenging. It’s exciting because as much as the show’s structure is set and there are strict choreographic rules, we have permission and are encouraged to deviate and interact when any little (or big) tiger enters the stage and they become included and involved in the story as it unfolds. Each curious tiger brings so many new possibilities and surprises to the performance, keeping it fresh and meaning that every show is a different experience, for both audience and performer.

This, perhaps, is what also makes it challenging…the unknown. Quite a lot of unknowns. Not necessarily negative but that anything is possible. We have to remain alert and tuned in to every person in the room as well as each other, and remind ourselves to trust our instincts when giving and receiving communication in ways that are non typical. We have to nurture trust quite quickly from an audience who haven’t met us before, and many of whom have never been to the theatre before. We also have to constantly take risks, in the moment, without knowing the outcome. At first, and during the research, having to be responsible for all of the above could be overwhelming at times, a bit of a mind squeeze, but it’s becoming easier as we bag more shows and I’m starting to really thrive on it.

When it comes to the audience, there isn’t really anything, within reason, that’s not allowed. It feels like an open space where there is complete artistic freedom on their part. I’ve noticed some particular personality types so far in how people choose to interact, all equally as valid as each other, we have…

-the fearless performer – who gets on stage pretty quickly and doesn’t hold back

-the quiet observer – watching mostly from the sides and interacting subtly

-the vocal observer – watching mostly form the sides and sharing sound interactions

-the win over – hesitant at first but totally on board by the end

-the not in the mood get me out of here – to be honest this hasn’t been a thing yet, but it’s entirely fine if it is. We wouldn’t be offended.

I’m really enjoying sharing the stage and the performance with our Playful Tiger audiences. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from all who have experienced it, which is not only humbling and great to hear but it also highlights the lack of opportunities for this kind of audience. I’m really excited to see what develops from here, and imagine what the future of theatre and dance could look like when we recognise more barriers so that we can work towards breaking them.

Jade Adamson

Photos by Jassy Earl

 

SINNERLIGT: Making a Sensory Exhibition

“Touch comes before sight, before speech. It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.” 

Margaret Atwood

SINNERLIGT is a commission by Scen:se, a multi-disciplinary project pioneered by the very brilliant Eva Von Hofsten, to bring accessible art and performance to Sweden. Making work for neurodiverse audiences is one of the areas of inclusivity that Sweden are actually a bit behind the UK on. Visual artist Laura Blake and I are collaborating to make an inclusive sensory exhibition, which will tour galleries in Sweden, linked in theme to a sensory theatre performance called ‘The Beach’, which will tour to the same cities. This is a clever way of allowing neurodiverse audiences to prepare themselves for the theatre visit in a less time-pressured way, while also creating an original artwork within its own right. More and more I see the value of durational arts experiences for audiences who are by nature not predictable.

Sculptural Tapestry by Laura Blake. Photo by Tina Umer

It has been exciting to explore the cross over between craft with performance. I am really enjoying going deep into our shared fascination with materials. We have been inspired by reading about sensory neuroscience and the architecture books of Juhani Pallasmaa, especially The Eyes of The Skin. Laura’s attention to quality and the tactile properties of each material we use has made me far more aware of what we place in front of our visitors. As a maker Laura is also used to working intuitively, through her hands. As someone who can tend to be quite cerebral in a creative process, relying a lot on talking, this has opened up to me a much more sensory making process, where we literally feel our way, relying on sketching rather than words to communicate our ideas.

Laura and Ellie

I am also enjoying creating a performative space that does not rely on performers to animate it. It feels refreshing to focus on all the scenographic elements without putting the audience under any pressure to interact with people they have only just met.

We want the exhibition to be as accessible for as many different people as possible, working with ideas of rich inclusion or universal design. Unlike exclusive, specialised performances, I am excited to make a space that families who have a child or adult with additional support needs can enjoy together. Sensory work equals the playing field and strips back to the source, to what is deeply human.

One of the best aspects of this project so far has been working with the McMillan family. Thea and Ian are architects. Their daughter Greta is an artist who has profound disabilities. She paints using eyegaze technology (Tobil). Greta uses her eyes to control her ipad to communicate and make art and also to make music (with Drake Music, a brilliant organisation in Scotland). Greta, Thea and Ian co-designed their house in Portobello, Edinburgh: The Ramp House , which is a fully accessible house and also beautiful, elegant design. I went to Greta’s exhibition and saw her painting ‘Staffin Beach’, which she painted while on a visit to the Isle of Skye.

Staffin Beach by Greta McMillan

This picture is so evocative of the wildness and sensory experience of that landscape, that it made made us imagine our exhibition to be like walking through Greta’s picture. Her work will be shown on a huge canvas in the gallery, with a video showing her creative process. The visitors will then walk into a series of immersive installations that create abstract sensory experiences as if you are wandering through Staffin Beach. Each installation is designed to be touched, ‘disrupted’ and interacted with.

Greta painting on the Isle of Skye

This is the first step for Laura and I in exploring meaningful co-design or collaboration with artists who have profound and multiple learning disabilities. For me, one ongoing challenge in work for neurodiverse audiences is finding ways to give individuals with complex needs autonomy in both the artistic experience and the creative process. It feels right that Greta created this art from her sensory experiences on Skye, and now, based on her interpretation, we will create a series of sensory experiences for visitors who have all different types of needs, considering those with the most complex needs from the beginning of the process. I think the opportunities in collaborations that technologies such as eyegaze open up are staggering and as yet untapped.

During development, we have had lots of design input from visiting adults and young people with additional support needs, who have been testing out our ideas. This has made us think more about:

• The balance of play and art (is there a difference between them?)
• The balance of concept and accessibility
• The balance of active and passive experiences

For me, learning to let the work stand on its own two feet is a fun challenge. I am hardwired to ‘perform’ everything and assume my presence as a performer will make a creative experience better. Laura assures me this is not the case!

We hope SINNERLIGT will create moments of intimate, playful connection between the people who go to it.

The SINNERLIGT team: Ellie, Laura, Eva and Ulrika

You can keep up to date with our progress making the exhibition on Instagram @performing_materials

SINNERLIGT open on the 1st of September at Halsinglands Gallery, in Hudiksvall.

https://scense.se/

Playful Tiger: Venue Training and Sensory Audits. Guest blog by Coery Nicholson

Hello, my name’s Coery and I’m a performer. Some of you might have seen me as the Guardian of the Labyrinth recently in ‘The Reason I Jump’ which was a show by the National Theatre of Scotland. This show was based on a book by a Japanese author Naoki Higashida, who is non-verbal and on the autistic spectrum. (I read the book with my mum, it’s good, especially for learning about autism, I’d recommend it). For me, I am 13 and I am on the autistic spectrum. I was diagnosed with autism surprisingly at the age of 2. I speak at home with my family, but in public I communicate through an ipad.

My case of autism is not as extreme as people who have profound autism, who are the target audience for Playful Tiger.

In the last couple of weeks, Ellie and I have been to Perth Theatre, The Barn, Macrobert Arts Centre, Platform, The Byre Theatre and Eden Court Theatre, and Johnston Town Hall that’s ran by Paisley Arts Centre. I have been grounding everything because why not and to make sure people understand the types of objects that a profoundly autistic person hates. We have travelled Scotland to a lot of miles like 76 miles. It’s pretty long if you ask me. But at least I got to go to the Highlands.

Our journey has been great, we get to go to Tesco’s then I can get the registered trademarks and look at copyrights and trademarks. Yay yay, and We had a lot of breaks and we have been doing this for about 10 days. It’s been a tough, tough ride to get to all theatres but we done it either way. We made them watch a video called A Is for autism and It is a cool video aaaaaaaa ooooooooo. We did a sensory audit for them to check each venue and then we finished with a Carlton dance because why not and it’s funny!

The audit was important because Autism Is a target of bullying because some people bully autistic people because they’re different. For example, I’m sensitive to loud noises and flashing lights, so sometimes I wear ear defenders. I have a huge phobia of flying beasties, it’s the buzzing sound I hate. But it’s different for everyone. This might be a little weird but when I look at someone that has autism and was doing something weird, even I would think in my head, “what is he doing?” But after a minute I understand why.

The reason that we are doing the training is that we think that everyone should be able to go to the theatres to see a show. So we train the theatres of all the possibilities, an autistic person and profoundly autistic person has and people with other disabilities.

By Coery Nicholson

 

 

 

 

Playful Tiger, Guest blog 2: Dancer Jade Adamson

Dance Artist, Jade Adamson, gives insight into the last week of Playful Tiger by Barrowland Ballet, in collaboration with Ellie Griffiths, research and development.

For the last part of our research and development for Playful Tiger, we focused on exploring ways of interaction through physical contact and vocalisation as well as trying out more of the performative sections of the show. Through working with some of the pupils at Isobel Mair School and the insights shared by the creative team throughout, what stands out and is extremely exciting for me about this particular work, is that it is fundamentally about being in the moment, listening and responding, inviting the audience on an artistic and experiential journey and sharing that experience. The interactions and exchange between the audience and performer become the essence of the show. The challenge as a performer is finding the balance between immersing in close up, one on one, interactions whilst keeping within the structure of the wider theatrical journey; looking at to what extent we are aiming to control the pace, atmosphere, environment and choreography and how much we are willing to let go and be in the moment.

As dancers and physical performers, listening and communicating through movement and body language is a skill we have really been able to draw upon and utilise during our research. Not using verbal language hasn’t been so much of a barrier and I felt comfortable and enjoyed experimenting around this. We were also very lucky to have had a session with thai massage specialist Juan Mases, who shared some deep pressure techniques that we were then able to put into practise when working with the pupils and with each other. This added a whole new layer to our toolkit and opened up the possibilities on how we might achieve the sense of collective calm towards the end of the show, after our wild Tiger adventure. Through this focus, I have been reminded of the power of communication through touch and physical contact, and have noticed my own mind opening up to the potential of this. I think in this day and age we are discouraged more and more from any sort of physical contact, particularly with children and young people, and therefore physical contact is seen as a taboo when it is actually a primary method of communication and grounding for some people and is a powerful sensory tool that we can all benefit tremendously from using more and not being scared of.

Through working with the young people and the discussions and learning resources that Ellie has shared and initiated over the past two weeks I have also been thinking a lot about inclusion, or having an ‘inclusive practise’. As a person who is non disabled and neuro typical, I am reminded that my experience and thinking is from this perspective, regardless of my intentions or attempts to understand different experiences of the world. I can try to understand the perspective of a person who is profoundly autistic for example, and can attempt to learn about how different brains work in order to communicate or measure how much I have managed to ‘engage’ as an artist and a person but I feel like I need to detach from my own preconceptions of this and simply appreciate that each person will take and offer something different and I shouldn’t be disappointed if someone is not ‘engaging’ in the way I have intended or expected. I think I just need to keep being open to possibilities and developing my toolkit and experiences.

What I am aware of, is that the world is generally not designed with and for people who are profoundly autistic, so I find it no wonder that over the past two weeks that as well as witnessing a huge amount of positive interactions and reactions I have also seen high anxiety, frustration and sometimes strong, physical behaviours coming out. This can be challenging to experience but at the same time, as far as I can gather, is just part of that person’s natural way of dealing with the world around them. The more we experience working with neuro diverse audiences, I think the more we will learn about the different ways that people might engage and communicate.

What has been amazing about the last two weeks is having the space to play, learn and think with the creative team, as well as getting to know and work with some fantastic young people and school teachers. Having the chance try lots of different things, discovering what works for one person might not for another and having permission to explore has been great. The bigger picture is that everybody should be able to access dance and theatre and that opportunities for this kind of audience are so very limited. I’m excited to create the show in September and then getting it on the road but also seeing how the audience development side of the project might have a longer-term effect on who goes to the theatre in future.

Jade Adamson

Playful Tiger: Guest Blog by Dancer Kai-Wen Chuang

We’ve had an exciting and interesting week back in the studio, with research and development into our new production Playful Tiger. Dance Artist Kai-Wen Chuang shares her thoughts on the process so far.

Playful Tiger is a new Barrowland Ballet production inspired by the successful children dance theatre performance Tiger Tale. It is a version of the show being made specifically with and for children and young people who are profoundly autistic and mainly non-verbal, although they may use language in an echoing or associative way or by vocalising. Other means of communication that they may rely upon include the use body language, symbols and signs.

We have had a great packed schedule for the first week of research and development of Playful Tigerwith a brilliant team. This includes Natasha Gilmore the choreographer and artistic director, Ellie Griffiths a theatre maker who specialises in making multi sensory theatre for neuro-diverse audiences, Belinda McElhinney as producer, Craig McNeill as Technical Manager and dance artists Jade Adamson, Kai-Wen Chuang, and Vince Virr.

We spent time during the week observing pupils in class at Isobel Mair School, training and rehearsing and at the end of the week performing segments of the show with four groups of students in the Isobel Mair School. (*Info about Isobel Mair school https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/IsobelMair/)

Sensory exercises: Create a small performance with hands

After one week of working with our new audience of children and young people I have learnt many things but also realise how little I know. After this week, I feel artists, who use sensory ways to experience, think and communicate with the world, have some things in common with our new audiences.

I can relate to some of our audiences who are non-verbal and think in visual and physical (body) way as I am more like a visual thinker being a dancer.; I am good at memorising movement and have an awareness of the environment by visual clues. I also use the various images to stimulate and create different (movement & dance) qualities and characters. Moreover, I love to go to contact improvisation Jams because it is a way that I can communicate with people fluently and purely without language or any social concerns.

Maybe it is also about my own experience of living and working in a foreign country, which has a different culture, language, custom, tradition, and natural environment. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and stress by living in Scotland, but I learn to allow myself to be patient and take times to finish daily life tasks or to stick with the same daily routines. It makes me feel better.

Sensory exercises: Feeling the physical vibration within the music

This week I particularly enjoyed the various sensory exercises led by Ellie Griffiths. Those exercises helped us to tune into our five senses and open a door to maybe put ourselves into our audience’s shoes; to have different experiences and perspectives of the world. For example, Jade and I paired up to do an exercise, which I called “Camera zoom-in eyes”. I closed my eyes and Jade led me to move around the space. Once she touched my shoulder, it was a signal to open my eyes. A giant object full of details and colors was in front of me. She tapped my shoulder again, and I closed my eyes. That image faded away slowly. We repeated this several times. The world I knew was different and it felt like going to see photography works, stimulating various thoughts and emotions, in the art gallery.

I was concerned about several things this week connected to performing Playful Tiger. My biggest worry would be that I made our audiences have bad experience and that they wouldn’t go back to see dance theatre in the future. Moreover, my other silly concern was about my character (Mom) being too strict, boring, and scary so that the audiences wouldn’t be interested in interacting with me in the second half of the performance.

However, I am quite happy with the result of the test performance on Friday in school. Most of the audiences enjoyed the performance and naturally came to me to dance, play, and explore the set.

Performing segments of the show in Isobel Mair school –  Interacting section.

We created Tiger Tale in 2013 and have performed hundreds shows over the world for six years. It is special and exciting for me to be part of the creative team in Playful Tiger. It offers a great opportunity for me to re-visit the show and re-imagine my character. Moreover, I enjoyed facing surprises and the process of learning while you are doing it. Like, the performance on Friday in school, a boy came into the performing space while we were dancing. It was a new situation and my mind flashed with some questions and solutions, and then I decided that my character within the story works better not to notice and interact him.

Next week I would like to explore my character’s story journey and create a sensory character’s profile, which includes what smells she has, what voice she has, what sound or noise she makes, what physical quality she has, what objects texture she can offer. I also want to discover how my character will interact with audiences. After this week training sessions, observing from school class and the test performance, I would pay more attention to listen, connect, find mutual interests with audiences.

Kai-Wen Chuang

 

Playful Tiger is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Creative Scotland.

The Reason I Jump: Creative Process

The National Theatre of Scotland recently staged a version of The Reason I Jump, by Naoki Higashida. Naoki has profound autism and learned to communicate primarily using an alphabet grid and began to write poems and short stories. At the age of thirteen he wrote The Reason I Jump, has now been published in more than thirty languages. The book describes Naoki’s lived experience of having autism, as well as interweaving pieces of his creative writing.

Graham Eatough, who adapted, (along with Dramaturg Clare Duffy), and directed this piece, worked intermittently over two years with a group of performers who identify as being on the autistic spectrum. Each person was interviewed about their experiences, which was then cleverly stitched together with Naoki’s words to form the text of the show.  As one of the themes of the book was nature, Graham chose to place the performance outside in the wildness of the Children’s Wood, Glasgow.

As Assistant Director, I had a specific focus. Despite being advised by a major autism charity that involving a performer with more profound autism, or who is non-verbal, would not be appropriate, Graham felt strongly that by only working with highly articulate performers who are ‘high functioning’, the lived experience of the author was not being represented on stage. From working on the film Frame, I felt that not only was it possible to involve a performer with this level of needs, but it was politically important: To not, would give a clear message that individuals with more severe needs are not relevant or worth being listened to.

Over the next few weeks I visited schools in the Glasgow and Edinburgh, to find pupils to collaborate with. I was delighted to work again with Jethro, from St Crispin’s school, who had been a central part of the Frame film. Jethro is a highly creative teenager, who does not communicate through verbal language. The final image of the show was cherry blossom falling from trees. Jethro loves to stand in high places and rip up bits of paper, scattering them in the wind. It felt totally natural to integrate this into the final masque sequence. A wooden ladder was built for this moment and Jethro’s job was to sit under s tree, or roam the site, ripping pink rice paper, often leaving a scattering wherever we went, in preparation for that final moment. What I found satisfying was that an act that seemed minor and understated throughout, held the highest status in the emotional climax of the piece.

Jethro

Each young performer I worked with communicated in a different way. It was the most fascinating creative brief to find what their version of a monologue would be, to make the their ‘voice’ heard in the piece.

Cara, a pupil of Isobel Mair school communicates in public using a PEC folder, which involves pointing at small pictures. We devised a visual script together so the audience listened to her as she pointed to a series of images. I enjoyed subverting the practical nature of this form. We made a script that felt poetic and at points, even brought some audience members to tears . Cara highlighted to me, and many who met her in the audience, the power and complexity of silence, and stillness. Not always needing to speak to be heard.

Cara Fyfe

Coery, a fourteen year old pupil of Abercorn School, came into the process exuding confidence and energy. Coery communicates in public through an ipad. He is highly articulate (and hilarious!) I loved watching the audience’s reactions as Coery began to speak to them through his ipad, and how this went from apprehension, to connection with him. Coery wrote some brilliant text that cut to the heart of the show. In the programme he wrote:

“I am glad I get to show people what autism really is and how it affects me and others. My brain is just wired up differently. I’m really happy I got this great opportunity to star in a production and show others how my autism makes me unique. ”

Throughout the show’s run, I never got bored of watching Coery and the other performers meet countless groups of different people. In particular, families who have a child with autism seemed to thrive on the opportunity to see their experiences authentically represented on stage. This led to many countless moments of connection. Coery, as with many others in the show is someone who is highly creative and charismatic, but who until this point had never been given the opportunity to publicly show who he is and what he is about. This is where the power of this performance lay.

Coery in rehearsals with Graham Eatough

 

 

Coery

This process was inspring and often uncomfortable. The word ‘voyeurism’ came up a lot, particularly in conversations about performers with more severe needs. Also it was challenging to find forms for each person that felt both deeply integrated in the piece and authentic to who they were. As an artist it pushed me to be more creative and be more open and playful with form, while being respectful to each person I worked with. Without Graham’s trust, integrity and fearlessness it simply wouldn’t have worked. This show went a small way to show what people with autism are capable of if you give them the space to be heard, and actually listen to them, on stage and during the creative process.