Disabled Cultural Safety: Training for Dance & Physical Theatre Teachers

This is a supportive and participatory training over four sessions, for dance and physical theatre educators interested in creating a more culturally safe and equitable arts sector.

Delivered in a nuanced and engaging way, this training will help you develop fundamental skills that can positively transform the experience disabled students have in your classes, whilst honouring your individuality and strengths as a teacher.

This training is not applicable to working with disabled artists in "inclusive" or disability arts settings. Instead, you will learn about simple but specific ways disabled performers can sustain our practices in public classes and the professional sector.

Dates

Sundays 17th, 24tth, 31st August & 7th September
1pm - 4pm
Full participation is required for this training.

Schedule

Day 1: Disabled Culture - Overview of the cultural and social context of the disabled community, including our history, contemporary issues, performance practices, and what safety can mean to us.

Day 2: Non-disabled Fragility - Building emotional resilience and self-awareness around common anxieties and biases as non-disabled people, with a focus on power, the non-disabled gaze and anti-harassment.

Day 3: Access in Classes - Develop a practical understanding of the different responsibilities of teacher, student, studio and the room, with a focus on consensual communication with disabled students about their needs, goals and preferences.

Day 4: Your Teaching Practice - Exploring how your own values, strengths and interests can be used to create cultural safety for disabled students in your classes, and demonstrating your teaching process and receiving feedback.

Each session will include a group check-in, 10-minute break half-way, time for questions, and closing reflections.

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.

There will also be a reflection exercise on days 2 and 4 which can involve writing, drawing, or a combination of these that works for you.

Is this training for me?

If you are:

• an educator of any type of body-based performance, including if you identify more as a teaching artist or workshop facilitator

• based in the professional sector, public studios or learning programs that don't have a specific focus on working with disabled communities

• 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

• happy and available to attend all four sessions in this course even if some topics seem unfamiliar

Then this training is for you.

If you are:

• a choreographer, director, or other performance-maker who wants to develop safer collaborations with disabled performers

• 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

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

• only interested in learning about one of the topics covered but not the whole course

Then this training is not for you. But check out my introductory crash course if you're an independent artist. And to enquire about my work with organisations 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 steep 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 cosy with 13 people if fully booked, but will maintain a clear pathway to the door and an area that you can sit out in as needed.

The tone and pace of each session 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 you work in.

This training 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 training has been designed over the four weeks 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 - just let me know beforehand so I can send you a link. My contact info is at the end of this section. However, this training 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 12 people can register for this training.

This training has one facilitator 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 training, 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).