'Disability is the last avant garde'

In the words of Yinka Shonibare, disability is the last avant garde. Bearing in mind that avant garde art has always been about breaking down preconceptions, discovering new perspectives and has often also been intimately connected to social movements advocating greater equality, it’s easy to see that he has a point. All forms of discrimination are wrong, and none is crueller than the de facto exclusion most disabled people face when trying to exercise their rights to access and participation.

Since 2013 the Onassis Cultural Centre has been organising programs and projects that aim to explore the tremendous wealth of inclusive contemporary dance bringing together disabled and non-disabled dancers, initially within the Unlimited Access network set up by the British Council and now in the context of iDance, an Erasmus + project that the OCC is coordinating in partnership with the Holland Dance Festival (Netherlands), Sk?nes Dansteater (Sweden), Stopgap Dance Company (UK). iDance aims to provide training and knowledge transfers that will support the professional development of disabled and non-disabled choreographers and dancers. You can watch a short video about the project here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QZ-jqibfk0

On Sunday December 3rd, International Disability Day, the OCC is organising an international symposium on “Providing Access to Culture and the Arts” that should be interesting to anyone concerned with the tremendous artistic potential of disabled people and the powerful voices they represent within the contemporary performing arts world.  

You can see more about the event here: https://www.sgt.gr/eng/SPG2036