Equity's Disabled Dancers Guide Launches at Edinburgh Fringe

Equity, the performing arts and entertainment trade union, has launched its Casting Guide for Deaf, Disabled & Neurodiverse Dancers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival today.

The guide provides advice to dance companies on how to avoid discrimination of Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse dancers, embed accessible practices from the very start of a new production, and in doing so collaborate with other progressive dance companies to advance inclusive working practices. It has been written by Annie Hanauer, member of Equity's Dance Committee, in collaboration with the union's Dance Committee and the Deaf and Disabled Members Committee (DDMC),

It features guidance on how to reach Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse talent; how to make auditions and rehearsals accessible; and how to optimise work methods such as choreography and communication. The aim is to support dance companies as this process becomes second nature, allowing them to engage with a wider circle of artists and to expand their audience.

Points in the guide include:

• Checking intention: why do you want to work with a disabled artist? Is it only about visual representation/performative inclusivity/"optics''? Treat each artist with respect, and do not employ people as a tokenistic gesture.

• Making call outs available in different accessible formats: Video with British Sign Language (BSL) and captioning, Audio Description, Large Print, Easy Read.

• Holding auditions and rehearsals in an accessible space.

• Open choreography: create movement tasks which give space for the dancer's interpretation and movement, rather than copying and executing given movement. If using set material, offer options and be open to each artist's translation, for example, the material could be done at different speeds, levels, etc

• Hiring access workers to support projects, for example BSL interpreters, mental health support, touring assistants. Remember that the Access to Work fund exists to cover some of or all of the costs of providing access to work.

Annie Hanauer, author of the guide and member of Equity's Dance Committee, says: "As an established disabled dancer and choreographer, I hope this guide can be a tool to support equity in our workforce, and create more opportunities for the many talented Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists out there. In my experience of working with other Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent dance artists, opening our working practices to a wider range of perspectives and ways of moving creates exciting new possibilities, and ultimately creates a richer and more vibrant art form. For employers out there - working with access and inclusion is achievable, it's exciting, and I hope this guide can help you start."

Cathy Waller, disabled choreographer and artistic director of dance company Cathy Waller Co., says: "This guide is a vital resource for the dance and wider arts sector, and gives us the information we need to work with and champion disabled creatives. Not only does the overlooking of disabled dancers and artists dangerously erode away opportunities, it also negatively impacts the dance sector's own success in creating high-quality and innovative work that represents both its audience and the beautiful diversity of our world. So let's applaud this work; let's share and shout about it; and let's support each other to be better, more inclusive and represent all dancers and all bodies, for all audiences."

Karen Anderson MBE, artistic director of inclusive dance charity Indepen-dance, says: "I welcome the introduction of Equity's industry guide for Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse dance artists. For the last 26 years Indepen-dance's artistic approach has been to ensure the arts, and dance in particular, is inclusive to all and our participants are fully included in the creative process of making, performing and being an audience for dance. I hope this guide offers support to other organisations to create a more diverse workforce in our industry."

Anita Clark, director of independent dance organisation The Work Room, says: "On behalf of The Work Room and our membership of independent dance artists and choreographers, I am delighted that Equity has published this casting guide for Deaf, disabled, and neurodiverse dancers. At The Work Room, we recognise that there are systemic inequalities in dance and relish our responsibility to ensure an expansive range of dance artists and practices are visible and supported. Our approach is rooted in artistic development and continues to evolve as an artform through the diversity of creative voices and physicalities influencing development. There is brilliant, practical information in the guide on approaches to making call outs, auditions and rehearsing processes more inclusive that will in turn expand audiences' experiences of dance."

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