This programme initiated in May 2016, the product of a partnership between several European organisations involved in contemporary dance, explores the close links between sight and dance, and is aimed in particular at the visually impaired.
The Humane Body – Ways of Seeing Dance is a pilot project aimed at improving ways of including blind spectators in contemporary dance. To achieve this, the network offers, among other things, sound descriptions and tactile tours of dance performances. In addition, the four partners are co-producing new dance performances created especially with and for the blind and the visually impaired. The European Union is supporting the network from May 2016 to November 2017 through the Creative Europe programme.
After a first act in spring 2016 centred on Simon Mayereau’s Sons of Sissy as part of the Camping programme, the CN D is repeating this experiment by creating a special experience for the visually impaired. The two works created by Volmir Cordeiro and Vera Tussing both set out to embrace the human body in its wholeness, disregarding disability for the duration of the performance.
In a further attempt to improve access to dance, the programme offers an audio description in different languages, as well as a contextualisation experience enabling the public to understand each of the works differently.
The European project is the fruit of a collaboraiton between the CN D Centre National de la Danse, the Wiener Tanzwochen in Vienna, the Kaaitheater in Brussels, and The Place in London, as well as the actions of an extensive network of associations and partners working to improve accessibility to contemporary creation.