It’s dark. If you are sighted, a blindfold sits across your eyes, blocking your vision, as you prepare to be immersed in Translations.
One of 10 dancers is assigned to you during the performance; 10 dancers for 10 audience members. You hear their breath as they move. You listen as they describe what they are doing. A soloist takes centre stage, and your assigned dancer traces the soloist’s movements along your back.
A dance show for the non-visual senses, which was created with visually impaired audience members in mind, Translations was performed at Inside Out Theatre as part of Springboard Performance’s Fluid Festival last fall. Inclusive programming is but one of the ways the company honours its mandate to remove barriers for deaf and disabled audience members.
“Accessibility is intentional. So much of our world has been inaccessible for quite a long time, in so many ways, that it has become the water that we swim in, and we’re not really noticing it,” says Col Cseke, artistic and executive director at Inside Out Theatre. Cseke adds that inaccessibility awareness is only part of the equation, with intentionality extending to thoughtfully removing barriers.
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