This journal was absolutely jam packed with super interesting, useful, inspiring information. I read it a couple of times (yes, the whole thing!) and I still feel like I have barely scratched the surface!

I found the “practice-based social practice” approach of Shades of Noir (SoN) quite invigorating. The push toward “more deeds and less words” is sacrosanct and it encouraged me to get my act into gear and go do something positive instead of just thinking about it.

In a Freirean pedagogical context where a dialogic approach of teaching is promoted, it also very much rings true to embrace the: “Need for intergenerational discussion, criticism, a space to practice safely self-care and articulate self-determination in order to liberate ourselves from the struggles of oppressive structures, both in education and society”.

I must admit, I didn’t realise there were so many different models to define disability by and how the “New Radical Model” takes the “Social Model” a step further by being concerned not just with disability rights, but with disability justice. “Disability is not just a health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives ”(World Health Organisation). The social model doesn’t take into account (SoN, 2020):

• The dual needs of people with learning disabilities (it presupposes a solely outward imposition from wider society
• Impairments that are related to social circumstances, such as economic poverty or malnutrition
• Wider intersectionality within the experience of disabled people of colour

I also found very positive to think of disability as part of human diversity vs a social tragedy (Withers, 2012).

The article I spent longer on was the interview with Maria Ashodi. Having worked in performance my entire life and quite a few times with aerial artists, this article really opened up a whole other world, a very different point of view, which I hadn’t engaged with before.

The tradition of Biwa Oshi was mind blowing to me. The idea of blind travelling artists travelling throughout Japan making a living through art was incredible and even more so, considering they would prepare a piece for 5 years, audition with it to a panel of blind audience and wait for a verdict that would change their entire life!

Ashodi’s Extant company was just as inpiring: a company led by BAME people who aimed at redefining the artistic space around visual impairment and disability. Ashodi explains how creating access for visually impairment is at the heart of their work and accessibility is not tagged at the end. Here I realised how my feeling proud for offering audio description of shows to people with visual impairment, was actually not something to feel so proud of, it was an arrogant assumption that people without visual impairment should have the right to choose what to show to those that had one. This disempowers the performers and distances the audience. In an Extant piece is the performer his/herself that describes the movement as part of the piece. The audience can then be part of the piece more profoundly, instead of hearing the disembodied voice of the non-disabled describer, through their headphones.

When thinking of it from a Production Manager’s perspective, a piece featuring visually impaired aerial artists, poses great challenges: how can I make it safe? How can I ensure the artists know where they are when in the air, how do they communicate to their riggers at height how can I ensure they will not make false moves and have an accident? I appreciate that Ashodi’s main goal is to enable people with disabilities to do the same things as people without disabilities, but how can we ensure safety when it comes to something so dangerous?

In my practice I need to be very careful about how I risk assess these pieces and even more so when they involve greater danger. Perhaps I would first need to talk to the artists to see what they need to feel safe, what precautions they are used to having, what I can do to ensure they feel safe and that they are actually safe. I also need to ensure I can provide these artists with the same opportunities I would provide artists without visual impairments. Perhaps I just need to consider the situation as it is, without assuming that being able to see counts a hazard mitigating factor (makes the activity less dangerous). Perhaps once I put in place safety measures for people with visual impairments, those same measures have to become the norm for all.

When it comes to student work, I need to encourage students to explore diversity in their work in as many combinations as possible. As Ashodi states: “Diversity [is] a place of genuine exchange that can become part of a creative force. It is equality and opportunity at every level, at leadership level as well, to challenge the decision makers and their roles too”. So student work needs to explore this idea of exchange, of challenging decisions, of making art accessible to all, performers and audiences.

This could happen if an open dialogue is established, if safe place is available, if possibilities are open, if barriers are broken, if even Health and Safety becomes an environment where positive solutions are found instead of one where hazards are eliminated.