‘Nothing About Us Without Us’: Collaborations between Disabled and Non-Disabled Practitioners

Abstract

This chapter stems from a conversation between David Bower, Caroline Bowditch and me, which took place within the context of a symposium on the politics of collaboration at Middlesex University on 18 May 2013. The conversation was followed, months later, by a brief email exchange, in which further questions were asked, ideas developed and positions clarified. As such, it is itself a collaborative effort—my part being, in a sense, curatorial, trying to collate and provide an academic framework within which the observations of these practitioners can be seen. Born in Australia, but now Glasgow-based, performance artist and choreographer Caroline Bowditch describes herself as a performer, maker, teacher, speaker and a mosquito, buzzing in the ears of the arts industry in the UK and further afield. David Bower is a Deaf performer and Artistic Director of SignDance Collective (SDC), where he works alongside Dance Director Isolte Avila, who created the art form of ‘signdance theatre’.¹ His philosophy pertaining to Deaf and disability identity holds that action speaks louder than words; his determination to pursue a career in the arts was driven, among other things, as an act of defiance against discrimination. Each of them has a long history not only of collaboration, but also leadership in the arts.