1. Collaboration between GDance and researcher Jürg Koch
Dance Unstuck
Access to Dance Training
Collaboration between GDance
and researcher Jürg Koch
Slide 1
Dance Unstuck
Access to Dance Training
My name is Jürg Koch, I was invited as a researcher into Dance Unstuck as a freelance dance artist with a background in dance and disability.
GDance, as a production company focuses on work led by and featuring disabled artist, with a commitment to initiating legacy projects and conducting sector development initiatives where challenges present themselves.
One such specific challenge presented itself during the GDance led choreographic project Stuck in the Mud in Choreographer Marc Brew, himself a wheelchair user, worked with a cast of disabled and non-disabled artist including dancers from Ballet Cymru and freelance dance artists - all with different training and professional backgrounds.
Within the context of Stuck in the Mud the challenge was: How do you deliver an inclusive, ballet based company class with an inclusive group of dancers. A challenge that remained unresolved in the creative and performance process of the piece. At the same time Gdance also received inquiries from parents of disabled children facing difficulties finding a suitable ballet class. As a result GDance designed the legacy project Dance Unstuck.
Creating access to training and artistic process has been part of my own research and practice ever since I danced with Candoco Dance Company between
When I transitioned from performing with Candoco to teaching in the Dance Program at the University of Washington in 2004, I wanted to take the experience of working in a diverse environment with me and make the approach applicable to Higher Education - and in doing so… make dance training accessible to a greater diversity of students.
Teaching at the UW I researched and developed approaches informed by Universal Design, integrated them into my teaching of contemporary class and eventually applied them whether or not students with disabilities were present in the class.
Collaborating with GDance on Dance Unstuck posed the question and challenge in how far these approaches are applicable to a codified form - in this case ballet.
I am however not a ballet dancer or teacher and I came to this project with experience in accessible teaching methodology. None of this would have worked out were it not for interested and engaged partners from the ballet world.
This includes co-teaching with Linda Virgoe, who brought an in depth understanding and knowledge of the RAD syllabus and the age group we were working with to the project. The conversations with Fionna Brooker and Lizz Forte from the RAD Dance Teacher and Education Faculty helped us shape the research parameters working with the Grade 2 Ballet syllabus in particular. Amy Doughty, Darius James and dancers from Ballet Cymru, who accompanied and participated in this project ever since it developed out of Stuck in the Mud.
There are numerous other people and organisations, like Patrick McGeough from the WDSA, who observed, provided feedback and advice at various stages of the project. And then there were of course also the dancers and for many of them their parents, who participated and contributed to this research with tremendous openness and dedication.

2. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training Slide 2
I would like to start this presentation with an image
The human heart, shown in an anatomical drawing.
Anatomy with its physical properties, possibilities and purpose.
The heart as a muscle, that can be exercised, trained, examined.
The heart and its beat at the centre of our physical body.
The heart shown as a symbolic shape.
It represents human love, affection, feelings and passion.
The heart as a symbol for what moves us and motivates us.
The heart and its affect - at the centre of our sensing, emotional and expressive self.
Dance can be seen in the same division of the physical versus the emotional - body and soul.
Dance as a physical practice, exercising, training and examining the possibilities of our body.
Dance as an human expressive form, what moves and motivates us as human beings.
How do these two similar, yet also contrasting ideas of the heart overlap?
How are they present in our dance practice and teaching?
What is at the centre – at the heart of our dance?
We understand that many for you, your heart is in it – your invested in ballet as a form and practice. How is it going to be perceived if we ”mess about” with something that is precious to you.
Why ballet? There are other forms of dance that are accessible – community dance, improvisation. I personally very much value these forms, but people take up different forms of dance including ballet because they form an attachment with it, they fall in love, it moves them and moves through them. We don’t take up a form of dance just because it happens to be accessible – it is also not just something we do, because we are told it is good for us.
Children both disabled and non-disabled fall in love with ballet and want to give it a go. This can put parents of disabled children in a difficult situation - they are instinctively and very understandably protective and want their child to be welcome in this learning environment and to be able to participate, learn and achieve along with all the other children.
We want to make sure you understand we are not singling out ballet. The reason Dance Unstuck focuses on ballet because it forms an important bridge: As a codified form it poses specific challenges, it plays an important role in early and continued dance education for children and it is also a required part of vocational training and many dance degree programs.

3. Dance Unstuck What is at the heart of Dance Unstuck
Access to Dance Training
What is at the heart of Dance Unstuck
Dance and Disability
Universal Design
The Research Process
The Web Resources
Slide 3
What is at the heart of Dance Unstuck
What is part of this presentation
Dance and Disability: I would like to give you a quick historic overview of dance and disability also identifying some of the sticky points in terms of dance training and education.
Universal Design: What is it, how is it applicable to dance and how can it help us unstick dance training and education.
The Research Process: I would like to give you an overview of the project, the approach we used, our research questions and different stages in the process.
The Web Resources: This presentation would not be complete without an insight into the online resource nearing its completion. I can theoretically explain what we did, but the website provides a more interactive and applied experience.

4. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training Slide 4
We can claim that dance and disability emerged in the 1980‘s as part of Postmodernism – it did this in a number of inclusive formats, workshops, companies and festivals. It was a convergence of social changes, the recognition and emancipation of people with disabilities as seen in disability legislation, as well as artistic and academic developments of the time.
In this image from Candoco we see Marc Brew in his wheelchair supporting the non-disabled dancers Jorge Crecis (Grethis) in a precarious balance.
However, there are also older, historic examples of disabled performers. Disabled people performed for Pharaohs in ancient Egypt, they played and danced at European courts from medieval times till the age of enlightenment – and let’s not forget the Victorian sideshow lasting into the 1930‘s.
Some of these situations can be considered shameless exploitations, whereas in others the disabled artists decide what they perform and how they are represented. Developing this awareness takes experience, it takes access to dance training and education.
During the 1990’s several community projects developed into established, touring repertory companies working at professional level. Yet the 2003 publication Disability and the the dance and drama awards by Jo Verrent concluded that while dance and disability at company and professional level was thriving, access to training for disabled people remained marginal.
While professional companies and artists create some access to classes for children and training for disabled dancers the 2015 mapping of inclusive dance in the UK by the Dance for Change Network, shows these provisions are geographically very ‘patchy’. Even though access to dance classes exists it is a lottery whether it is available in your area.
Due to dwindling support and diminishing project funding there is also no guarantee that even these patchy provisions will continue.
There are also noticeable discrepancies in terms of access to dance classes for different disability groups. Children with learning disabilities attending special schools have more regular access to creative and community dance classes taught via subsidised organisations, than children with physical disabilities integrated in mainstream schools, relying on the private sector for dance classes.

5. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training Slide 5
The lack of access to dance degrees is at odds with the fact that for some 30 years disabled dancers have been working professionally as performers, educators and choreographers. (Some of these artists are included in the collage on the screen)
There is a disconnect between access at the professional level and access to training, both for children starting dance classes as well as at the level of vocational training and degree programmes.
As dance educators we talk about “preparing dancers for the profession”. Is that really true, when many of the disabled dancers here can’t actually make it into our dance studios or degree programmes. What’s more, inclusive companies also struggle to find sufficiently trained disabled dancers ready to work at a professional level.   
At the heart of Dance Unstuck is connecting early dance training with vocational training, degree programs and professional dance practice. This requires sharing practice and resources across different sectors including: schools, arts and sports, subsidised organisations and the private sector.
And we ask: Who do we teach? What do we teach? How do we train and teach dancers?

6. Dance Unstuck
Access to Dance Training
“Universal Design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”
Ron Mace, The Center for Universal Design
Universal Design and its principles challenged me to rethink my own practice and has strongly informed what I am doing now.
Ron Mace was an architect and designer. As a person with a disability he developed the seven principles of Universal Design, with the main idea of:
“…. designing products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.”
Initially developed with architecture and product design in mind, these seven principles were then also considered and expanded for teaching and education as UD of Instruction.

7. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training Equitable Use:
Provide the same means of use for all users, identical where paossible; equivalent where not.
Avoid segregation
Make the design appealing to all.
Slide 7
I would like to use the first of the seven UD principles as an example.
Equitable Use.
This means we provide the same means of use for all users, identical where possible; equivalent where not.
We avoid segregation in the process and make the design appealing to all.
One example of UD is the kitchen utensil brand OXO – aiming to develop kitchen utensils for a much broader spectrum of consumers, including people with disabilities.   
Unable to discuss all of the UD principles here, Equitable Use addresses the fundamental attitude to access and allows me to highlight some of the challenges faced in the teaching process.
I also think the can opener is a good metaphor when considering access to dance training.

8. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training Slide 8
There are of course many layers to access
Looking at studio classes, improvisation, composition and even repertory, especially when creating new work, are largely deemed accessible. Technique classes, of which we are seeing a few examples here, deserve particular attention.
Technique classes in a traditional sense, are the single, major challenge to access and inclusion, because of the position they hold in studios and degree programs and because of the way in which they are taught and assessed.
What are we aiming to teach in a technique class and how do we assess if a student has met the teaching goals?

9. Dance Unstuck Learning Goals / Assessment Criteria
Access to Dance Training
Learning Goals / Assessment Criteria
RAD Syllabus: Vocabulary for Advanced Foundation Level
Slide 9
In teaching we can differentiate between closed and open learning goals and assessment criteria.
Some of the RAD assessments use exacting lists of ballet movements - It is an example of closed teaching goals. The RAD also uses open teaching goal, but I am using this particular list as an example of closed teaching goals.
This type of criteria can make access really challenging. Unless you can perform a 2nd arabesque en fondu as specified – you will not pass this part of the exam.
We can ask what would reasonable adjustments for disabled dancers look like? Can the movement be translated into another body part or exchanged with another movement of the same difficulty. Can the student demonstrate her knowledge and skills verbally by describing the main aspects of the movement and its execution?
This is a sticky point and precisely why we focused our research on teaching and using open, shared teaching goals in relation to ballet principles. While we made headway in the teaching process, the question of assessment has yet to be addressed. We hope that the web resource provides an entry point to start this conversation.

10. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training
Learning Goals / Assessment Criteria
“Execute sustained movement sequences consolidating strength, balance, co-ordination, flexibility and control with accuracy, safety and technical fluency.”
National Diploma in Professional Dance Trinity College London
Slide 10
The National Diploma in Professional Dance in the UK provides an example of open teaching goals, requiring dancers to:
“Execute sustained movement sequences consolidating strength, balance, co-ordination, flexibility and control with accuracy, safety and technical fluency.”
This is a comprehensive list of skills we expect from a dancer. These open teaching goals are applicable to several different dance forms, and they are also more accessible. Time and time again have I seen disabled dancers demonstrate these very skills.
Open and generic teaching goals don’t prescribe how a student demonstrates these skills. The essence is that the student demonstrates the ability to retain her (not necessarily a uniform) set phrase of sufficient complexity with accuracy and perform it with appropriate control and detail.
This wording allows for an accessible approach. In reality however, we as teachers, regardless of the form, still more often than not teach specific, set movement material and then assess, how well the student can copy my version - in practice we often still end up with implicit, closed teaching goals.
Just as we thought we were almost there. The challenge is how we train the required skills and eventually assess them in an accessible way – it becomes a question of teaching methodology.

11. Dance Unstuck
Access to Dance Training
How do we train the required skills with a diverse student population?
How can students demonstrate these skills through their movement range?
How do we give feedback and assess fairly?
Slide 11
The main questions for me as a teacher are:
How do we train the required skills with a diverse student population?
How can students demonstrate these skills through their movement range?
How do we give feedback and assess fairly?
So far I have presented you with reasons why technical training is such a major sticking point in terms of access.
UD challenged me to rethink my teaching practice, my teaching goals and develop these questions here for teaching contemporary technique. These question at the heart of Dance Unstuck is, can this work in relation to specific ballet principles and material.

12. Dance Unstuck Teaching approaches in dance and disability
Access to Dance Training
Teaching approaches in dance and disability
Workshop Approach
Disability Specific Approach
Adaptations
Slide 12
How do professional dance companies achieve access and inclusion?
Many professional companies, not just something inclusive dance companies work in a fluid workshop set up, integrating technical training, improvising, composing and rehearsing within the same session. This is very different from dance schools and degree programs - where these skills are taught in separate types of classes.
This fluid workshop approach is definitely something we need to take on board for teaching in an accessible way.
However we can also identify two other teaching approaches that are used in dance and disability.   
There are disability and style specific approaches (E.g. Kitty Lunn’s ballet for wheelchair users.)
A disability specific approach can work in a specific class and company setting. However exclusively offering ballet classes for wheelchair users in HE or applied to a general syllabus as the RAD provides it becomes discriminatory, as it selects some participants on grounds of their disability while rejecting others. Participants in a class should not be selected or rejected based on a type of disability, but based on their ability to take part in the class and engage with shared teaching goals.
Let’s be clear there are always criteria involved in setting up any class. For the RAD Grade 2 Ballet research GDance stipulated the following criteria for the participants:
An interest in ballet and love of dance (no prior ballet/dance experience required – for those who already had ballet experience we also made sure, they had not engaged with the Grade 2 material yet)
Approximate age range
Availability during the research and filming period.
Comfortable working independently and in groups, with both peers and adult professionals.
A capacity to generate and remember movement material.
Ability to stay away from home if not based near to Gloucester.
In a UD informed approach we need to be clear about our criteria for participation and not select based on a type of disability.
While disability specific approaches can inform my teaching it is also a bit of a sticky point when discussing access and inclusion.
This leaves working with adaptations, meaning - adjusting or translating a standard, set phrase to suit a student’s movement range. The question is, who does the job of adapting.
If the instructor does it, you end up preparing and instructing not just material for one class, but classes depending on the constellation of the group. This is hugely demanding on the instructor and it also greatly reduces the time spent actually moving.
If a student does it, he or she engages in a very different learning process. While the rest of the group observes and copies the taught phrase, remembers and performs it as a group, the adapting student is asked to analyse the original phrase, translate, remember and perform this material independently as a solo.
Adaptation, presumes an advanced, analytical understanding of dance – an understanding that is not demanded from non-disabled students. The process is therefore by no means equitable – it segregates and singles disabled students out.
The sticky point is: Teaching approaches used by dance and disability companies work in very specific environments but can’t be translated directly into general studio practice. The UD principle of equitable use challenged me to rethink my reliance on working with adaptions.

13. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training Adaptations
The process of adaptation, presumes an advanced, analytical understanding of dance.
It involves analyzing, translating, composing, remembering and independent performance. of the teaching material.
Slide 13
I just mentioned how adaptations involve analysing, translating, composing, remembering and independent performance of the teaching material.
These are really great skills. My point is, rather than ditching working with adaptations all together, let's make it a teaching goal relevant to all our students. How do we teach these skills here to the entire class – not just the students with disabilities.

14. Dance Unstuck Working with Adaptations Access to Dance Training
Exploring – Improvising – Setting
Me – You – Us
Slide 14
Challenged by the principles of UD I introduced adaptations as a teaching goal for the whole class. This also brings with it a long needed change in terminology. I refer to this process as working with individualized material.  – Individualizing is a teaching approach that is widely used in regular school teaching and has a large body literature.
In terms of teaching dance, it involves moving from:
Exploring and experiencing movement principles, to improvising and then varying degrees of setting and developing the emerging material.
In this process I describe and demonstrate a task, and let the dancers explore the movement principles and their possibilities guided by verbal inputs.
These explorations can then be set as improvisations, gradually leading to a catalogue of specific movement possibilities and individually set phrase material.
Rather than leaving the material at an individual level, we then also want to put this material in relation to each other to discover overlapping and contrasting material in the process. We move from the individual “Me” to “You” and “Us”.
Rather than a frontal teaching situation, we work in the professional workshop mode, drawing on and developing improvisation, composition and rehearsal skills. There are a number of tasks, games and processes I use in this process – some of which we will be seeing on the web resources.
Depending on the group I will exclusively work in that mode or just apply it to a specific moment or one exercise in the class. Any teacher engaging in this process would need to gauge what the participants and class need in the learning process. It is important though that all the participants have a shared understanding of these processes and learn to apply them in the class collective as well as independently.
Why is this relevant to entire class? Why is it relevant to non-disabled students?
While working at the UW one of the shared complaints by the teachers was, that the dancers burn out by the end of the quarter, they get injured and sit out. Dancers also had recurring injuries as results of overusing or misusing their movement range. These dancers, despite having years of dance experience were not prepared to develop individualized material to suite their current movement range, because they had not been taught to do so. Giving permission or simply demanding this process from a student is not enough – it has to taught.
It was to my great satisfaction to observe a student who had taken my class in previous quarters, applying this process in the end of term showing of a colleague. He had a temporary back injury preventing him to use his full movement range. He edited the material and performed the phrases sitting on a bench. He had learnt and applied movement analysis, translation, composition and independent performance. What is more the overall class climate and teaching approach supported and rewarded his efforts.
Working with Individualized Material

15. Dance Unstuck
Access to Dance Training
“Execute sustained movement sequences consolidating strength, balance, co-ordination, flexibility and control with accuracy, safety and technical fluency.”
Slide 15:
Remember the open, generic teaching goals? I am convinced that using the teaching processes informed by UD, allows a greater diversity of dancers to access dance class and demonstrate the required skills through their movement range.
The approaches discussed here extend beyond the initial idea of access for disabled dancers. And again this very much goes right to the heart and centre of this research: Diversity and differences in body-type, age, level or type of previous training, current physical and fitness levels, working with injuries, individual learning goals, etc. are not “issues” but an educational and artistic interest we are engaging with.

16. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training 2015 Newport / Ballet Cymru
Professional dancers
2016 Gloucester RAD Primary level
2017 Gloucester
RAD Grade 2 Ballet
Dance Unstuck consisted of three rounds of residencies and labs.
The first lab was in 2015 where we worked with an inclusive group of professional dancers at the Ballet Cymru Studio in Newport.
During the first three days the UD approach was introduced to the dancers, material researched and generated and then filmed during the remaining two days. This was an important part of the research finding out how to apply the methodology to ballet.
The second lab was in 2016 in Gloucester at Linda Virgoe Dance Studios working with the RAD Primary syllabus with an inclusive group of seven, 5 – 7 year olds. While we filmed the material from this week it does not lend itself for inclusion in the website - we learnt a lot. It was a first engagement with RAD material co-teaching with Suzie Birchwood and collaborating with Linda Virgoe, there were also technical issues with regards to the filming. All these aspects needed time, more consideration and dialogue.
Based on the gathered experience we split the third lab into two weeks and the preparation also involved a number of face to face meetings. This included meeting Fionna Brooker and Lizz Forte at the RAD, which led us to reconsider our choice of working with the Grade 4 material and making important changes to the daily teaching structure. I visited Linda Virgoe at the studios in Gloucester to gain insight into the different grade levels and ways of teaching the dancers were familiar with. In return I also taught a UD informed mini-session with a group of unsuspecting Grade 4 students. We ran sessions for Dance Support Workers and an introduction to the UD approach for interested teachers.
The first week meeting and working with the young dancers was in February. During this time we introduced the teaching process, explored and established material in relation to the RAD Grade 2 syllabus. We also needed to find out which of the dancers were able and interested in committing to the second week. The Second lab was four days in April where we reviewed and then filmed the material with an inclusive group of six, 8 – 10 year old participants.

17. Dance Unstuck Access to Dance Training What makes Ballet – Ballet?
What is the
form and/or function
Can we create new and accessible material consistent with the criteria of ballet?
At the start of the research we conducted a number of interviews with invested partners to find out what is ballet. What makes ballet – ballet.
Ballet has evolved over years. Ballet today is different than at the time of Taglioni’s La Sylphide – Reisinger’s Swan Lake – Balanchine’s Apollo.
Ballet has a specific, detailed and set vocabulary. It is an accumulation of vocabulary, styles and schools. There is a recognizable movement quality and way of presenting the body that favours: Long, open, effortless lines, large articulations and complex virtuosity.
Going through the various aspects of a ballet class we looked at main types of movements and asked two questions:
What is the form and/or the function of a specific movement?
Can we pursue both form and function in creating access or do we have to prioritize one aspect?
Can we generate new and accessible material consistent with the characteristics of ballet?
Is it legitimate to do this? If we change the “step”, is it still ballet?
Let’s take the example of one of the primary ballet movements: the plié
What does a plié look like, what is its form? (Ask)
Folding of legs – support
Different positions (5 defined positions), how would you describe them?
What is the function of a plié? (Ask)
Lowering and rising, warming up, strengthening, transferring weight, jumping, landing, generating momentum, preparation for turns, balances etc.
Depending on when we do a plié, the answer changes.
Is it about the form: A slow lowering towards the floor. Something used for its artistic, expressive possibilities.
Or is it about the function: Having the strength and control to travel, to land safely after a jump or turn?
That is important information if we want to create access for somebody working with crutches, a wheelchair etc.
It is, I believe, also important information for any dancer in a class. What am I doing with this movement, what are its formal, functional, artistic aspects. Engaging in these questions can only make me a better artist and performer.