disability art

Oriana Fox interviews the queer, working class, disabled artist and writer Jet Moon. They discuss Moon’s varied practice including live performance, anti-austerity activism, sex work and facilitating writing workshops for survivors.

This interview was recorded live on Instagram in May 2021 as part of Oriana's digital residency at Mimosa House Gallery. You can watch the original video here.

Oriana Fox is a London-based, New York-born artist with a PhD in self-disclosure. She puts her expertise to work as the host of the talk show performance piece The O Show.

Jet Moon is a writer, performer, director and activist producing politically engaged creative work including events, works and collaborations that push for change, re-evaluation and empowerment. They often operate outside of the traditional arts context, in clubs, autonomous spaces, as part of queer or activist gatherings, traveling to work with marginalised groups and promoting information exchange and mutual aid.

For updates on Jet Moon's upcoming books and the next incarnation of Playing with Fire the survivor's writing project, follow them on Instagram. 

Credits:
Produced, edited and hosted by Oriana Fox
Introductory Voiceover by John Kilduff, aka Mr. Let's Paint
Original theme song written and performed by Paulette Humanbeing
Special Thanks to Tom Estes, Sven Van Damme, Katie Beeson, Janak Patel and Mimosa House Gallery, London
www.orianafox.com

***Would you like to see your name in the above credits list? In a couple of short steps, you can make that happen by supporting this podcast via Patreon.***

Visit www.theoshow.live for regular updates or follow us on Instagram.

Oriana Fox speaks with live artist Daniel Oliver about the daring mix of pre-planning, chance, nakedness and collaboration in his work. Oliver wants audiences to be euphoric about or made uncomfortable by his participatory work, anything but indifferent. In embracing the label dyspraxic along with punk aesthetics, he welcomes the potential for getting things wrong. In fact, he believes that's what makes live art the ideal medium for his work. Taking agency as a neurodiverse artist for Oliver means that if you don't like what he does, you're just ableist.   

The first half of this interview was recorded live on Instagram in May 2021 as part of Oriana's digital residency at Mimosa House Gallery. You can watch the original video here.

Oriana Fox is a London-based, New York-born artist with a PhD in self-disclosure. She puts her expertise to work as the host of the talk show performance piece The O Show.

Daniel Oliver is a performance artist and scholar who specialises in participatory performance and awkwardness. His experience with dyspraxia has lead to an invested interest in neurodiversity and its place in contemporary performance practices and scholarship. His book Awkwoods: Daniel Oliver’s Dyspraxic Adventures in Participatory Performance was published by Unbound in 2019. Oliver's latest piece Artparty Boardgame is touring the following UK venues in May 2022:

• CLAY, Leeds, Friday 6th May - https://www.clayleeds.co.uk/
• ​Cambridge Junction, Cambridge, Friday 13th May - https://www.junction.co.uk/chipperlarterart-party-the...
• Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester, Wednesday 18th May - https://www.colchesterartscentre.com/.../wonderful.../

Credits:
Produced, edited and hosted by Oriana Fox
Introductory Voiceover by John Kilduff, aka Mr. Let's Paint
Original theme song written and performed by Paulette Humanbeing
Special Thanks to Sven Van Damme, Katie Beeson, Janak Patel and Mimosa House Gallery, London
www.orianafox.com

***Would you like to see your name in the above credits list? In a couple of short steps, you can make that happen by supporting this podcast via Patreon.***

Visit www.theoshow.live for regular updates or follow us on Instagram.

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Tebandeke Joseph, an African contemporary dance artist based in Uganda. He shares how athletics led him to contemporary dance, and how he sees dance as an engine for change. Tebandeke aims to change the community perspective on disability through street performances and through the schools. He dreams of eventually opening an accessible dance center with an adjoining library about dance and sports so people with disabilities can have more support and exposure. Tebandeke describes how the village mindset in his country believes dance isn’t valid, and the effects of the pandemic have hurt the existing dance scene even further. He believes a center for dance in Uganda would go a long way to rectifying many of the problems he perceives. Finally, Tebandeke discusses the need for role models because the experience of disability in Africa is much different than in Europe, and more role models would normalize and empower people with disabilities in Uganda.

Text written by Emmaly Wiederholt. 

Tebandeke Joseph practices disability inclusion in Uganda and has set up platforms and projects that make people with and without disabilities in Africa believe in themselves. He believes dance is a language that all can access in an era of post colonialism and decolonization. He has worked in different locations such as the Freiburg contact improvisation festival (Germany 2019), East Africa Nights of Tolerance (Rwanda 2017), Tuzinne Festival Where Human Rights Dance (Uganda 2017 - 2018), Ubumuntu Arts Festival (Rwanda 2018) and Segou’ Art (Mali 2019). As an active choreographer, Tebandeke has created several productions with Candoco Dance Company (United Kingdom), Splash Dance Company (Uganda), Mambya Dance Company and Pamoja Dance Company (Kenya). Tebandeke also runs free workshops in his local communities once a week to promote inclusion in dance. He hopes to share contemporary dance to youth with and without disabilities. It is a passion that fuels him to this day.

Joseph has been invited the teach in a festival in Helsingborg Sweden and is currently fundraising money for travel, visa and insurance costs. Any amount and each share helps him reach his goal. Thank you! 

https://gofund.me/db6b0da4

Check out DanceCasts awesome collaborator Emmaly Wiederholt's work at Stance on Dance

And more about Silva does at Art Spark Texas check out the dance programs website, bodyshift.org

Link to Joseph Tebandeke's YouTube, is here. 

This episode is an interview that Oriana carried out in the summer of 2017 with the artist Katherine Araniello. Sadly, Araniello passed away in February 2019, but she leaves behind a rich body of work that is politically fearless and infused with subversive humour, some of which is excerpted and contextualised in this episode. Her videos and performances often entailed self-representation, but in forms that were never earnest or preachy, instead they aimed to provoke and challenge. Satire, personas, absurdity, deadpan delivery and playing the victim were some of Araniello's key tools. The discussion focuses on how these play out across various works including her vlogs, her public interventions addressing assisted suicide and her crowd-funding campaign aimed at producing a professional music video for her song "Miracle of life". In this way, the conversation also inevitably touches upon the representations of disability that Araniello's work rallied against and her nonconformist appearance in everyday life. Spoiler alert: we talk at length about her hairdo!

Dr Oriana Fox is a London-based, New York-born artist with a PhD in self-disclosure. She puts her expertise to work as the host of the talk show performance piece The O Show.

Katherine Araniello (b. 1965, d. 2019, London) was a live art, performance and video artist. She was also a member of The Disabled Avant-Garde with fellow artist Aaron Williamson. Her videos are accessible via her youtube channel and her archive is held at Queen Mary University of London. 

Credits:

• Hosted, edited and produced by Oriana Fox
• Post-production mixing by Stacey Harvey
• Themesong written and performed by Paulette Humanbeing
• Special thanks to Tracey Jannaway, Alistair Araniello, Joan Araniello, Katie Beeson, Janak Patel, Sven Olivier Van Damme and the Foxes and Hayeses. 

Would you like to see your name in the credits list? In a couple of short steps, you can make that happen by supporting this podcast via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/orianafox

If you're enjoying the series, please rate and review in your favourite podcast directories such as iTunes, Spotify or Podchaser. NB: You may need to sign in to rate and review.

Visit www.theoshow.live for regular updates or follow us on Instagram.

Advocating for Inclusive Dance in the Public Schools

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews New York-based dance educator and advocate Sandi Stratton-Gonzalez. Sandi shares her dance beginnings and describes how she always identified as a teacher, even as she pursued performance opportunities, which directly led to her career as a dance educator in the public schools. She ended up working for 20 years at the first fully inclusive public school in the country, where there was also a robust performing arts program. Sandi reflects on the value of those experiences and how they informed her later work in city-wide efforts to represent dance educators and advocate for students with disabilities. She talks about how she’s staying active in the field post-retirement and adapting to online spaces.

Text by Emmaly Wiederholt, founder of Stance On Dance.

Sandi Stratton-Gonzalez taught dance to children with special needs in inclusion and self-contained classrooms for more than 20 years at PS 372 in Brooklyn. Recently retired from the classroom, Sandi is the coordinator of the Arnhold Programs for Dance Educators and the Dance Transition Team Leader at the Office of Arts and Special Projects in NYC. She is a professional development facilitator with the Arts for Students with Disabilities Team (NYC), advocacy director for the NYS Dance Education Association and teaches dance for students with disabilities for NDEO. A member of NDEO since 2005, Sandi works with the NDEO Dance and Disabilities Task Force, whose goal is to increase the organization’s capacity to support the dance and disability community. She is co-author (with C. Gallant and D. Duggan) of Dance Education for Diverse Learners: A Special Education Supplement to the Dance Blueprint and has been published in Dance: Current Selected Research Volume 7 and Dance Education in Practice, where she is a member of the editorial board. Sandi was an adjunct professor at Hofstra University from 2008-2018, teaching Dance in Elementary Education. Prior to teaching fulltime, Sandi was the founding artistic director of Soundance Repertory Company (1984-1999), and her choreography has been presented throughout the Northeast.

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Tali Wertheim and Hai Cohen, artistic directors of Vertigo Power of Balance, an Israeli based inclusive dance company. Hai describes how he came to dance almost by accident, meeting Tali in a workshop led by Adam Benjamin that culminated in a performance. Tali shares how she and Hai felt that contact improvisation and inclusive dance needed to continue in Israel. They fervently studied Adam Benjamin’s exercises, and within a year Vertigo Power of Balance was born. Tali and Hai speak about how they developed their teacher trainings for one teacher with and one teacher without a disability, as well as their summer intensive programs. They also share the process developing their most recent piece, Shape on Us, choreographed by Sharon Fridman, through a pandemic and war. Hai describes how he was struck by the raw and real way in which Sharon chose to display disability in the piece.

Text by Emmaly Wiederholt. 

You can learn more about Vertigo Power of Balance on this link. 

This episode was originally recorded for X Dance Festival.

This episode is published also at Stance on Dance. 

Photo by Yoel Levy.

Interview with Karen Daly; Being Seen as A Dancer

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Karen Daly, a dancer in Eugene, OR with DanceAbility
International. Karen shares the story of her entrance into dance in her 40s and some highlights from her
career working with DanceAbility. She also discusses the process of creating performances through
DanceAbility’s framework, and how the principles of sensation, relationship, time and design serve to
augment the performers’ ability to communicate to each other and to the audience. Finally, she reflects
on how it’s sometimes still difficult to see herself and be seen as a dancer.

Text by Emmaly Wiederholt

http://stanceondance.com
https://www.bodyshift.org
https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Ride-One-Legged-Journey-Self-Acceptance-ebook/dp/B077YB9VVL/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=joy+ride+my+one+legged&qid=1574101046&sr=8-1
https://www.artsparktx.org

Interview with Roman Baca; Dancing the Veteran Experience

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Roman Baca, who is an Iraq War veteran, the director of EXIT12 Dance Company, and an MFA candidate in Choreography at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. He describes his upcoming MFA final performance, which seeks to choreographically share the experiences of five veterans on the lawn at Trinity Laban. He also shares his transition back to civilian life after serving in the Marine Corps, how finding dance again was necessary to overcome his internal anger and frustration after serving in Iraq.
Text by Emmaly Wiederholt

http://exit12danceco.org
https://vimeo.com/312834658
http://www.stanceondance.com
http://www.bodyshift.org

Dance Applied to Real Life

In this episode of DanceCast, Silva interviews Margot Greenlee, a choreographer, theater director and
artist educator based in Washington DC. Here, Margot discusses her involvement with Jacob’s Pillow’s
Curriculum in Motion® and her own project, BodyWise Dance, which provide dance classes and
workshops for individuals and groups in healthcare, education and corporate settings that offer
movement as a way of learning and processing information. She details one program of BodyWise
wherein dance and theater practitioners work with a group of people with intellectual disabilities to
create and perform an original show with the goal of using performance as an opportunity for community integration.

Text by Emmaly Wiederholt

http://stanceondance.com
http://www.bodywisedance.com
https://www.jacobspillow.org/programs/community/jacobs-pillow-curriculum-in-motion/
https://www.bodyshift.org