Unmute Dance Theatre, South Africa with local performers Adam Roberts, Bogdans Demcuks, Helen Cherry & Porcelain Delaney, Liverpool Biennial 2023 Photographer Pete Carr

Neslysim Divadlo, Czech Republic, Camp and Furnace, DaDaFest International 2008

Dance is a powerful tool for sharing experiences and emotions. Since 2001, DaDaFest has programmed solo artists and national / international companies, whose work amplifies disabled stories and breaks down preconceptions of disability.

“We carefully selected images that we felt truly captured the essence of DaDaFest’s rich history. Since people are the heart of this festival, we wanted to highlight the transformative power of art and performance—showing how they inspire both audiences and performers, now and for generations to come.” - Grace Lister-Akerman

  • A blank stage with wide stretch of black floor and tall walls, our focus is taken to forward stage. A large rosette of people are intertwined, linking hand to hand. The amalgamation of outstretched arms, twisted spines and perturbing knees and elbows take up space between the seven people. Their faces, focused and patient, holding each other for support, that support illustrating the tumbleweed-tangled limbs, arm in arm, hand in hand, fingers interlinked. Showing semblance as to look towards the sky in a forest, how the trees graze against each other.  
  • a minimalist blank white floor, crisp white curtains drape down the sides of the stages walls, the looming sense of SENSE itself fading with each second that passes the white liminal. The uncertainty of its location isn’t sated by the occupants on its stage floor. On our right we see a man, the same crisp white drapes hung across his body, a gown for a patient or their saviour. He sits on a brutal edged steel chair, comfort is its last priority. A woman is knelt by the side of the man, her arms and hands rest on the man’s left thigh, she rests her head, a sense of affirmation is seen through the woman’s body language, whilst the man shows non, a blank- vacant stare that looks through the woman’s body as if she was glass. Her head is turned to the left, facing away from us, though we cannot see if her eyes are open we can follow her presumed line of sight towards the far left hand side of the stage. The comfort of having both man and woman on stage at this very point is tested. A 5 foot tall glass box with just enough wide space as a conventional coffin. Crudely suspended, a man wrapped in wire and twine is hanging off the ground by 2 feet. His one free leg hanging, possible signs of defeat. Their face is bound by the same crisp white as the men, women and surroundings. The same way a bank teller would describe the appearance of the thief, visage smudged by the tights one would wear on their legs. Together, the couple and the suspended man share the same eerie space as its crisp white curtains project an almost silent static.  

This website is fully responsive and requires Javascript.
Please enable javascript to use this site without issue.