Disability, Performance and Internationalisation
(in Kollaboration mit der IFTR Working Group «Performance and Disability», Co-Convener: Kate Maguire Rosier & Yvonne Schmidt)
Disability Arts Festivals are growing in different parts of the world. Theatre and dance companies with disabled artists are increasingly touring and collaborating with international partners. At the same time, theatre spaces are often not accessible and the necessity of mobility excludes disabled artists from being part of an international disability arts community. How does disability performance travel, who does not travel - and why? What is the role of funding and producing structures, disability arts festivals and networks around the world? How do the logics of international (co-)producing govern the way in which disability art is represented internationally? Who is excluded from being part of a touring theatre or dance company, and how can festivals, conferences and other agents of a growing disability culture create other forms of participation which are not limited to physical co-presence? How does digitalisation open up new possibilities for disabled artists to disseminate and share their work? The project, conducted by members of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) “Disability & Performance” Working Group, combines theories and approaches from Theatre and Dance Studies, Media Studies, Digital Humanities, Performance and Cultural Studies, Mobility Studies and Disability Studies. Rather than focusing on Anglophone scholarship and arts practices, which is still predominant in the field of disability and performance studies, we are interested in perspectives from different parts of the world.
