Spoken Dance

The choreographers and dance artists Lisa Rykena, Naomi Sanfo-Ansorge and URSina Tossi invite you to get to know and try out different approaches to creative audio description (AD for short) and to share experiences from their work processes with Aesthetics of Access.

The workshop is aimed at sighted, blind, and low vision artists and audio descibers. The workshop takes place over two days. The first day goes from 11:00 to 15:00 (incl. breaks), the second from 11:00 to 16:30 (incl. breaks).

Artistic AD in dance can be understood as a set of practical tools that creates access to dance and theater for blind and low vision audiences. Describing visual elements of a piece - such as movement, gestures, facial expressions, set design, costumes and props - is a central component, as are touch, sound and voice. During a dance piece or play, these descriptions can come from audio describers (from the outside) but also from performers themselves (from the inside). AD can be conceived in different ways: via headphone systems, as live descriptions in the room for the entire audience, as whispered AD, and more.

We offer you an introduction to the spectrum of artistic AD, playful approaches to improvised audio descriptions, lots of practical exercises and a trying out doing a self-description. During the exercises, participants can take on different roles such as actors/actresses/dancers, audio describers, and witnessers. We will deal with dramaturgical decisions in working with AD and would like to formulate and question different ways of creating artistic AD together. In addition, we will discuss ableism and how to ensure an accessible production process for blind and low vision collaborators in dance/theatre projects. We will also provide tips on touch-tours.

Please bring everything you need to move around comfortably and to write things down (smartphones are welcome). We will speak German and English, as is needed.