05 Dec NO ASSUMPTIONS, PLEASE!
An experience of true inclusion in the performing arts
Hello everyone and welcome back to ‘No Assumptions, Please!’ A lot has happened since I last wrote. One thing that has kept me busy was finishing the final year of my BA in Creative Arts at MCAST. But today I am excited to tell you about the new mixed-ability performance called ‘BALM’ that I have also been working on for the last few months, which I am very fond of.
Last year (2023) I was selected to join the Professional Media Presence EU project which is funded by Creative Europe with 6 European countries taking part in this project. The project includes several workshops held in some of these countries. In October 2023, I went to Turku, Finland for the first workshop week where I met an Italian dance organisation, Perypezye Urbane which does work in the community. They shared the same vision that I have in making the performing arts mixed ability. I made friends with their artists and with the organisers from Perypezye Urbane.
In March 2024 Perypezye Urbane gave me an artist residency where I could go to Venice to develop a project in mind. The residency allowed me to be accompanied by a choreographer, Rachel Calleja (who is now our artistic director at Opening Doors) and a professional dancer, Niels Plotard.
In June 2024, in the two weeks that we were at the residency, I got to explore and with my BALM team, build a performance based on my monologues and exploring words my text had. It was on how I see myself as a person with Down Syndrome. And how I want other people to see me beyond the label. Perypezye Urbane gave us a space to grow and they also gave us two beautiful studios where we could really physicalize our piece. One of the Perypezye Urbane founders, Giovanni Sabelli Fioretti became my dramaturg – which meant that we could go deeper into the process. The process of this residency was also a process of self-discovery for me, and I could not have done it without my amazing team who supported and empowered me. The openness, the sensitivity and the humanity that the whole team brought was extremely valuable and special for both the process and for my own growth and journey.
Since Rachel, me and Niels were living in a shared house, I got the opportunity to practise my independent living skills as well, like I learned how to cook. In a way, it was also a good process where I got to work on my artistic skills, but also on my own daily living skills. I got to learn how to live more independently with support and empowerment from Rachel and Niels. The whole residency was an inclusive environment where I could truly flourish and be myself. The team was excellent because of the amount of empowerment, and encouragement, motivation and inspiration.
“I have gone on the same evolution as the performance during the residency, from being unseen to being finally seen for who I truly am and it feels AMAZING.” – extract from my personal journal
In July 2024, we performed ‘BALM’ in Dance Festival Malta. It had been a dream of mine to perform at Dance Festival Malta ever since I watched Stopgap Dance Company perform at the very first festival here. It was also the very first dance festival that I had ever performed in. I will always remember when we performed ‘BALM’ for the first time:
“The BEST performance of my entire life and the best one that I ever, ever did. I went and made myself (be) finally seen as a person. As Angela” – extract from personal my journal
Perypezye Urbane also invited me to take part in their own dance festival called Venere in Teatro in September, in Venice. Arts Council Malta gave us funding so the whole team went up to Venice for our second time. This was the first time that we were performing BALM abroad, and it was received very well by the audience! The performance was:
“Amazing. It was really something else. It was real, painful, authentic, healing and beautiful. I experienced so many emotions during the performance last night! Pain, love, tears and joy. And being truly, truly seen.” – extract from my personal journal
What I really appreciated about the Venere in Teatro Festival was the community that they had created from the organisers of the festival to the festival’s technician, the cook and the other people who were involved to make sure that everyone was taken care of and comfortable. There was a real sense of community and it felt really nice to be part of the Venere in Teatro family where we were taken care of by everybody.
“Everything about this festival was beautiful. Emotional and beautiful. All my dreams were turned into reality. All came true in very special and beautiful ways. It has really been a lifechanging experience of a lifetime.” – extract from my personal journal
For me ‘BALM’ was really an experience of true inclusion. I would like to leave you all with a quote from Opening Door’s new Artistic Director, Rachel Calleja. It is a quote taken from my MCAST BA dissertation on “Representation for people with learning disabilities in the performing arts in Malta”, where Rachel was one of the people I interviewed. She says about mixed-ability work, “We have to keep going. We need to keep going and keep creating more of it and in this way we are going to inspire a generation of people with disabilities who see these performances and works and say, ‘there’s a place for me’…”.