Disabled Cultural Safety: Pay-what-you-can Introductory Crash Course for Dance & Theatre Independents

This is a fun and participatory workshop, for independent dance or theatre artists who want to challenge everyday ableism in our industries.

Delivered in a supportive and engaging way, this workshop will help you develop a more nuanced awareness of yourself and our society, and develop your capacity to show up for disabled collaborators and colleagues in informed and constructive ways.

This crash course is not applicable to working with disabled artists in "inclusive" or disability arts settings. Instead, you will learn about creating grassroots change by amplifying the work of your disabled peers in the professional sector.

Schedule

5:30pm - 5:50pm Acknowledgement of Country & Check-ins

5:50pm - 6:15pm Overview of disabled culture, social contexts, and arts practices

6:15pm - 6:30pm Questions

6:30pm - 7pm Introduction to non-disabled fragility and anti-harassment

7pm - 7:20pm Role-playing activity: non-disabled feelings

7:20pm - 7:30pm Reflections

7:30pm - 7:35pm Break

7:35pm - 7:50pm Introduction to solidarity, accomplices and cultural safety

7:50pm - 8:10pm Role-playing activity: participatory peership

8:10pm - 8:20pm Debrief

8:20pm - 8:30pm Questions & Closing

The learning will be about one third sharing information verbally with summary points and pictures on a powerpoint, one third facilitated discussion as a group, and one third practical activities that involve working in pairs.

The "role-playing activities" do not involve pretending to have disabled lived experience.

Is this workshop for me?

If you are:

• an independent dancer, actor, choreographer, director, or other performance-maker who wants to use your privileges to create safer spaces for disabled performers and makers

• interested in learning from disabled perspectives, and comfortable with your own perspective being gently challenged and exposed to new ideas in a supported but honest learning environment

• based in professional or independent sectors that don't have a specific focus on working with disabled communities

Then this workshop is for you.

If you are:

• a teacher of any type of body-based performance who wants to develop safer learning spaces for disabled performers

• a studio or venue manager, arts worker or board member interested in improving disabled cultural safety at your studio, venue, company or organisation

• interested in applying what you learn here for working in the disability arts sector, as a disability support worker, or in any settings with a specific focus on disabled participants

Then this workshop is not for you. But check out my other training for dance and physical theatre teachers. And to enquire about my work with organisations and presenters specifically, please reach out to me directly through the "Contact host" link at the top and bottom of this page.

Access

The Blue Room Theatre is close to the CBD. Getting here from Perth Train Station is a 5-minute walk / 7-minute manual roll with a sharp brief downhill if coming through Picabar. Getting here from Perth Busport is a 5-minute walk / 7-minute flat manual roll. It is next to CPP State Library carpark on Francis St.

The Perth Cultural Centre is currently closed for construction, please check this map for which pathways are closed: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/infrastructure/perth-cultural-centre-rejuvenation The accessible front entrance has a locked sliding door - please message the number on the door to enter.

Lighting will be a mix of fluorescent overhead and natural lighting, with a projector screen that will have mostly pale but not bright white backgrounds. Lighting can be adjusted at any time.

The facilitator will always wear an N95 mask, and spare N95 masks and hand sanitiser will be available at this class. Windows can be opened in the room too.

The room has air conditioning and heating.

Seating will include chairs with padded backs and seats and no armrests, and a few cushions for the floor. The room will feel smaller with 21 people if fully booked, but will maintain a clear pathway to the door.

The tone and pace of this workshop will be open and responsive, in order to create a learning environment that is curious and where honest dialogue and feedback can be shared. It's important to me that you feel accepted and valued so that you can grow confidently into the next stage of your learning journey, but I will also encourage you to think critically and truthfully about the social contexts we work in.

This workshop includes learning about important social and cultural histories and present-day experiences which may initially shock some participants for whom these lived experiences are unfamiliar and unjust. This will always be shared with care and respect, and prefaced with content warnings. In mindfully harnessing the potential of uncomfortable growth, this workshop has been designed over the three hours to give you the best possible opportunity to grow emotional resilience and better cultural competency whilst maintaining healthy boundaries and nervous systems.

Information will always be broken down into manageable amounts. It matters a lot to me that you have access to the skills and knowledge we're learning, so I will always adapt and move at the pace of the room (whether that's faster or slower). There will be ongoing check-ins about pace.

A quiet corner with stim toys and breathing exercises will be set up near the back, and you are welcome to sit out anytime.

If you can only participate remotely it's absolutely fine to attend over Zoom - feel free to register with an online ticket. However, this workshop will require a lot of focus and engagement, so please ensure you are in an undisturbed environment as much as possible.

Currently no more than 20 people in-person and no more than 20 people online can register for this training.

This workshop has one faciliator who is a young, queer and Sri Lankan-Australian interdisciplinary performer, creator, collaborator and emerging teacher with dynamic physical disabilities and learning disabilities. I am also a part-time mobility aid-user who alternates between using a manual wheelchair, walker, and cane. I grew up performing, have had an independent body-based creative practice since 2014, and began professional development as a theatre-maker in 2017 and as a dance-maker in 2023. I have been a lived experience advisor in the public sector since 2015, and have worked professionally with arts organisations in this capacity since 2022. You can see some examples of my movement work here: https://www.youtube.com/@patrickgunasekera4618

If you have any questions, concerns, requests or feedback about this workshop, I would love to hear from you - please click "Contact host" under the event dates at the top of the page, or in the Host section below.

Header image by Eduardo Cossio, still from "On Silence (After John Cage)" by Patrick Gunasekera, Outcome Unknown #84 (2023).