DANZ QUARTERLY Issue No 11
April, May, June 2008
Jolt – Mixed Ability dance in Christchurch
Lyn Cotton the Director of Jolt tells her story to Tania Kopytko
What inspired you to begin working in this area of dance?
I started working with people with disabilities purely by chance in 1995 when I was sent as a relief teacher to a school for students with learning difficulties in London. As a Drama teacher, I had no experience in working with people with disabilities. I had imagined “special needs” referred to dyslexia and mild learning disorders. Paddock School however, catered for children and young adults with severe and multiple learning disabilities. Despite having no idea what I was doing (we sang songs and read books for the first six months), I fell in love with the work and with the students and ended up staying for two and a half years.
Our senior students went for a weekly dance class with a dance specialist, Wolfgang Stange. As part of my responsibility as teacher in charge of performing arts, I was invited to go along. On the way into class one of our students, Ricky, had collected a flower. I watched Wolfgang create a dance using this flower. The dance moved me because it never sought to impose a structure on the student, but instead allowed him to express his own creativity. The smallest of movements became a dance as powerful as that of the most technically accomplished performer. In that moment I decided that this was the work I wanted to do.
Over a three year period, I attended Wolfgang’s workshops, joined his Monday night class and eventually got invited to join his company Amici. Having decided to return home at the end of 1998, I gave up full time teaching to focus on learning as much as I could. I became Wolfgang’s assistant, working with him in his day classes and teaching them when he was overseas. I performed with Amici in London and Vienna and co-directed Feet Wet Up for the LWT talent challenge Community Arts project in Hammersmith.
How did working with Wolfgang influence you?
It had a huge influence on both my life and my career. Founded in 1988 by Wolfgang Stange, Amici is one of England’s leading mixed ability dance theatre companies, integrating able bodied and disabled artists and performers. Amici’s work is centred on celebrating difference through dance. The process of collaborative dance has become the foundation for all of Jolt’s work. As a company we have developed our own unique performance style, but the basic principles of mutual respect have remained the same. Both Jolt and Amici dancers require openness and awareness. It is essential that a dancer does not impose their movement on another, but allows for a mutual experience to develop. There is a freedom and unpredictability that inspires creativity and forces people to connect on a true level.
How did the Jolt project develop?
In 1998 I returned to Christchurch and established dance classes at Penbury Day Centre and Linwood College based on Wolfgang’s principles.
My aim was always to establish a youth group that could be developed into a performance company. As luck would have it the Christchurch City Council was also looking to support initiatives for a disability performing arts programme (which was sorely lacking). The vision was to create a regular dance class that would develop skills and offer opportunities for young people with a passion for dance to train and perform. Our first class had 10 students. We targeted young adults and quickly established a strong core of committed dancers, six of whom are still with the company. Over the next 6 years the company grew slowly but steadily, creating a second adult’s class, 2 children’s classes and a teenager’s class. There are now 5 classes with over 60 students ranging in age from 2 to 60. In 2004 Jolt’s education programme won the prestigious NZRA (NZ Recreation Association) outstanding programme award for excellence, commitment, best practice and quality performance.
What is the dance process?
The classes are dynamic. Students respond in the moment and the challenge is to be aware of these moments and find structures that allow these moments to be translated into dance. The key aim is to encourage people to connect on many different levels: to self through increased body awareness, to creativity through response to music, and to other people through improvisation. The classes do not focus on teaching technique, but rather explore movement through mirroring and extending the unique qualities of each individual.
How did the Jolt Performance Company develop?
In 2002, the Jolt Performance Company was set up in conjunction with well known choreographer Fleur de Thier. The aim of the company is not only to create dance works of the highest standard, but also to celebrate the unique qualities of the dancers and challenge perspectives about disability and contemporary dance. The company is a mixed ability company, integrating disabled and non-disabled dancers, amateur and professional dancers. Jolt dancers are central to the choreographic process. They provide the inspiration for the works and are continually challenged to achieve technically as well as creatively.
Since 2002, Jolt has created a vast array of works: five major shows, conference performances, and works for the Special Olympics and Halberg Trust. Our initial works were tentative, exploring who we were as individuals and how we related to each other. In 2005, we created a work for the Special Olympics. It was a highlight for Jolt, not only because it involved performing to over 500 people, but because in many ways it symbolised what Jolt was all about, combining young and old, amateur and professional dancers, with and without disabilities in a celebration of difference.
As the skills of our dancers have developed and our confidence grown, we have challenged ourselves to address issues of disability and explore the boundaries of movement. In 2007, Let Inside me Laugh was created as an exploration of the experiences of two of our core dancers, Stephen and Michael Krammer, both of whom have autism. Using dance in combination with original film by Rick Harvie, the piece was a moving expression of both the frustrations and fragile beauty inherent in this condition.
In 2007, Jolt Youth was established as a performance opportunity for younger Jolt members. It performed to sell out crowds at the Christchurch Body Festival and we are intending to create a new show annually within the festival.
Performances planned for 2008 include: the premiere of a new work by the main performance company in June, a new work by Jolt Youth in the Body Festival in October, and the creation of a new conference piece for the NZRA in September.
Tell me about the model of good practice you developed?
It is not always easy to sustain programmes for people with disabilities. On a basic level, classes require the availability of tutors, support workers and an appropriate space as well as ongoing financial support. Communication is key - the participation of students depends on the support of families and disability care groups. There needs to be good networks of communication between tutors, families and support workers and commitment to a common goal.
Jolt has established a successful model for the establishment of mixed ability dance classes. Our vision has always been clear. We are first and foremost a dance company and our target group are people with a passion to dance.
Support has been critical for development - we have had the support of an umbrella organisation through the Christchurch City Council’s (CCC) KiwiAble programme. Under the guidance of Trisha Ventom, the programme has provided ongoing funding (through The Canterbury Community Trust), networking and dissemination of information and has been invaluable in shaping the vision of the company. We have also had support from Marlene Le Cren (Arts Advisor for CCC) and the Creative Communities funding scheme which has provided funding for performance projects.
Another critical factor is that we grew slowly, establishing a strong core of dancers for each class before creating a new one. We established clear guidelines for class sizes and the number of support workers required to meet the individual needs of students. We have developed a culture of openness and exploration within the classes. Support workers are encouraged to become essential members of the group and in many cases have become Jolt dancers themselves. There is a sense of community. The classes provide a place not only for students to learn, but also for families and support people to meet and share experiences
What special qualities can dance provide for people with disabilities?
Having originally come from a background in drama, I have often questioned my preference for dance when working with people with disabilities. Dance is able to transcend barriers: physical, intellectual and social. It is sensory. It doesn’t require verbal communication. A physical limitation can become an opportunity to create new forms of movement. A touch can communicate a relationship. Music has the ability to connect with our emotions and unlock self-expression in ways that are often unexpected and powerful.
A lot of Jolt’s work is with people with autism. Dance creates a new vocabulary for communication that deepens relationships with self and others. While dance provides new opportunities for people with disabilities to express themselves, in the same respect the involvement of people with disabilities in dance has created a new and powerful medium of expression. It challenges our perceptions of what dance is and in many ways what beauty is.
What is your vision for disability performing arts in NZ?
It is an exciting time for disability performing arts. In Christchurch alone there has been the development of new theatre and dance groups and an initiative towards setting up a fulltime training course in performing arts for people with disabilities.
There is a need to develop an infrastructure to support new initiatives and allow opportunities for the sharing of resources, expertise and experience. A database of groups, regular opportunities to conference and a working committee, which can initiate ideas on a national level and network with associated groups, is needed.
The main barrier for people with disabilities in the performing arts is opportunity: the opportunity to train full-time, to have access to high quality tutoring, and to perform in a professional environment working with professional technicians, choreographers and designers.
We need to develop tutor training programmes to produce teachers who are both competent in working with people with disabilities and skilled in their own area of expertise.
There is also a need to access funding for performance opportunities. The spectrum of disability performing arts is huge and there is a need to expose the public to the range and depth of what is possible.
Our long term vision for Jolt is to consolidate our education programme through the establishment of a permanent dance school, establish a full-time dance company, build a permanent dance studio and tour performances nationally and internationally. For more information visit Jolt’s website www.joltdance.co.nz
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