As part of Liverpool Biennial 2023 through ongoing arts and accessibility consultancy work DaDaFest have been supporting with, Unmute Dance Theatre will present a new collaborative piece devised with local participants; former young DaDa member Helen Cherry, Bogdans Demcuks, Adam John Roberts and DaDa Fellow Porcelain Delaney.
Unmute Dance Theatre (Cape Town, South Africa) is a company of artists with mixed abilities/disabilities using Physical Theatre, Contemporary and Integrated Dance to create awareness on accessibility, integration and inclusion of people with disability within the main stream society.
They aim to address and challenge the society’s state of mental misconception on disability(s), they encourage people to break barriers and to be aware that we are all abled and have our own abilities. They believe that having a disability doesn’t make any person less a human or less capable, therefore removing shame and stigma from society is the company’s mission towards building an integrated community.
The company came into existence in 2013 after a performance creation entitled ‘Unmute’. Unmute was the first ensemble choreographic piece by Andile Vellem. It is based on his experience as a dancer who is deaf. This work was a way of Andile finding his voice as a choreographer, using sign language as the source of the movement vocabulary. He brought together artists from different backgrounds to investigate and explore what they would like to un-mute; feelings, perceptions, social norms and expectations; while endeavouring to deconstruct what society perceives as dance. The inception of the company then developed in 2014 after a successful run of the Unmute Production and it was co-founded by Nadine Mckenzie, Mpotseng Shuping, Andile Vellem and Themba Mbuli.
Through an ongoing collaboration,DaDa have supported Liverpool Biennial and Unmute to collaborate with local dancers to explore shared lived experience of being d/Deaf, Disabled or Neurodivergent to develop a performance as part of Liverpool Biennial 2023.
Together, through an online and in-person residency programme, this new cohort of dancers have shared skills and experiences, collaborating across borders to create, develop and perform a brand-new showcase for Liverpool Biennial 2023 inspired by the theme uMoya and incorporating signed dance using South African & British Sign Language.
Bringing their bespoke choreography style, Unmute explore the body as a vessel for alternative, more accessible forms of communication that transcend spoken or written language. Engaging with ‘uMoya’ and the transition from catastrophe to joy, Unmute Dance Theatre use creativity to bring about emancipation, liberating themselves from conventional language. Unmute traces the way in which uMoyaresides in the body as breath and breathing, interpreting movement as an extension and result of that breath. Like the wind in uMoya which is a form of language, holding histories and ancestral tales, the body is itself an unmuted language, speaking in abstract symbols of its lived experiences.
DaDaFest are pleased to support Liverpool Biennial in presenting accessible performances on the following dates:
Saturday 5 August, 2pm & 6pm, Capstone Theatre/Hope University Creative Campus. The 2pm performance will be BSL Interpreted.
Sunday 6 August, 2pm, Capstone Theatre/Hope University Creative Campus. This performance will be Audio Described.
All events are free but booking is required, head to the Biennial 'What's On' page to book tickets:
For specific access requirements, please contact access@biennial.com who will be happy to offer guidance.
This project is supported by @ArtFund, @BritishCouncil and @PaulHamlynFoundation