Dodzi Dougban, Diana Niepce, Annie Hanauer, J Neve Harrington, Edwin Ramirez und Nina Mühlemann, Sindri Runudde, Katarzyna Żeglicka.
These are the names of the artists whose projects have been shortlisted for the next step of the application process of EBA Open Calls for disabled and Deaf artists in Europe.
The applications we received paint a picture of a truly remarkable sector: artists with provocative, innovative, and exciting ideas from across Europe demanding change in the cultural sector.
All applications were read by at least 4 people, by people in at least 3 different countries, both disabled and non-disabled cultural professionals. All applications were read by at least two of the Curators or Artistic Directors of the EBA Consortium partners.
After all this, we are proud and happy to announce our 7 shortlisted projects. In the end of the process three of them will be EBA Co-productions. The announcement will be in late October.
King Rhubarb by Dodzi Dougban: Germany
Dodzi Dougban is a celebrated hip hop dance artist now working at the intersection of Hip Hop, Afro and contemporary dance. Dougban continues to collaborate with both hearing and other Deaf artists on both video and stage works.
King Rhubarb is a work which explores structural and social hierarchies, and considers a utopian future of flat hierarchies within society. These questions are explored in a duet using the visual language of hip hop, krumping and contemporary dance. Dougban will collaborate with dancer and choreographer Nona Siepmann.
This work is specifically designed to appeal to an audience of young people, and the work will be designed not only for the dance stage, but also able to be performed as an outdoor performance and within spaces such as community centres and schools.
Horn F***ers | Do what they tell you by Diana Niepce – Portugal
Horn Fuckers | Do what they tell you is a work based on the physics components that organise chaos theory. The work will expose bodies in a state of contemplation of the massive destruction present in the world. It is a transgressive and poetic work that seeks to challenge the viewer to reconsider conventions and the notion of certain social norms.
Diana Niepce has been described as “one of the most notable artists in the Portuguese contemporary dance scene. She is a choreographer, dancer, researcher and writer, known for her challenging, sensitive, innovative and extremely rigorous work, where she radically expands the limits of the body, movement and dance itself”.
In Horn Fuckers | Do what they tell you Niepce will scale-up her ambition – working with 6 performers. The work will see artists suspended above the stage – with the visual dramaturgy reflecting the order and disorder of our contemporary world.
Diana Niepce was one of the ten artists filmed for the Europe Beyond Access Learning Journeys for Producers and Promoters, and can be seen here in a film exploring The importance of disabled artists in the contemporary dance sector
Starting With The Limbs by Annie Hanauer in association with L’Autre Maison – UK / France
Starting With The Limbs will draw on Hanauer’s embodied knowledge as a life-long prosthetics wearer to explore how that lived experience translates into new movement vocabulary on a company of dancers. The work will include bespoke ‘wearable sculptures’ designed for each dancer, doubling as costume & scenography, to be worn on the body or taken off to reshape the landscape on stage.
Annie Hanauer is an independent dance artist based in London, UK, working internationally. She has performed, choreographed, and taught extensively around the world for 16 years. In Starting With The Limbs, Hanauer will collaborate with dancers from the Marseille-based L’Autre Maison association.
Starting With The Limbs will premiere at the Festival de Marseille.
Title to be confirmed by J Neve Harrington – United Kingdom
J Neve Harrington is a neurodivergent artist working with choreography, writing, installation and costume/space design. With a background in visual arts, dance and psychology, Harrington’s work has often responded to her experience of challenges in accessing unwritten rules of social engagement. Her work explores what she calls “cognition + dramaturgy”: how perceptual and sensory experience shapes the material languages of an artistic work, and how addressing this might challenge inherited conventions of spectatorship and participation.
This work, title to be confirmed, will be a hybrid work with a live durational performance score for performers and fabrics. Live movement on stage will be captured by overhead camera, with movement transformed into the creation of a digital quilt. That digital quilt will be projected in an altogether different location – allowing different experience and engagement from different spectators.
Criptonite: Bioluminescence by Edwin Ramirez und Nina Mühlemann – Switzerland
Criptonite is a “crip-queer dance and theatre project” by Zurich-based artists Nina Mühlemann and Edwin Ramirez, which was founded in 2020.
In “Bioluminescence” (working title) Criptonite will explore what they describe as the proximity of disabled people to animals, fungi and plants and use it as creative inspiration to examine their own movement, behavior and language patterns, their networks and connections to both fellow human beings and means of access.
What worlds open up when an association with an animal or plant is not viewed as negative, but is used to question ableist, capitalist assumptions? To reveal new ways of thinking and behaving? To enable new forms of togetherness?
In Bioluminescence Ramirez and Mühlemann continue their commitment to work with leading European experts, and in this production will work with dancemaker Alessandro Schiattarella and Dramaturg Alexandrina Hemsley
Criptonite: Bioluminescence is a co-production with Tanzhaus Zürich.
AD Orchestra by Sindri Runudde – Sweden
AD Orchestra is a work which will build on Runudde’s investigation into how dance works can be led by sound an audio impulses – radically changing the experience of dance not only for visually impaired audiences (and artists), but challenging the sensorial hierarchies of contemporary dance. The title refers to audio description and is a research within a spectral journey inside language and description.
Sindri Runudde is a Swedish dancer and choreographer with experience of making several group works. Sindri approaches their work from a queer and feminist perspective, and with a lived experience they are involved in the disabled community, both nationally and internationally.
In AD Orchestra Runudde will collaborate with musician and composer Hendrik Willekens.
Layers by Katarzyna Żeglicka – Poland
Layers is a project which Żeglicka describes as practicing radical imagination, hope, “speculating on utopian scenarios, and dancing for liberation from oppressive norms”. The inspiration for the performance is the fate of the heroines of Cristina Morales’s book “Lectura fácil” and the life of Frida Kahlo.
Katarzyna Żeglicka describes themselves as 49-year-old queer/crip, performer, dancer, choreographer, a theatre teacher and a burnt-out feminist and queer activist. In this dance duet with video projection, Żeglicka will be joined by Alicja Czyczel and Volha Salakheyeva.
“By combining our herstories, queer feminisms, bodily practices and definitions of utopia, we will create a stage story composed of dreams of an anarchist world. The show will also encourage the audience to use radical imagination.”
Żeglicka has been an active participant of Europe Beyond Access programme since 2018. Here you can see the EBA interview with Żeglicka.