Are you interested to learn to make your dance performances more accessible to audience members who are Blind or have low vision? Now you have an amazing opportunity to learn over five days with seasoned describers of movement and dance about the art of Audio Description.
This workshop is facilitated by Gravity Access Services founder Jess Curtis, choreographer, performer and scholar. Jess has been making dances with his company Gravity, internationally since 2000 and founded Gravity Access services in 2018. He has led workshops in Audio Description practice internationally for performers, dancers and actors. Co-presenter Tiffany Taylor is a Blind dancer, actor, singer, and expert in extra-visual access for performance. They have worked together since 2017, creating accessible performances and offering access services to artists and venues across the US and Europe.
Workshop participants will meet daily at Vesper in Austin, Texas from 10 am to 5 pm, Monday, April 10 through Friday, April 14, to learn, practice, and discuss best practices to describe movement and dance. Participants may also participate in a practicum on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, observing Curtis and Taylor in their process of previewing and preparing an Audio Description for a performance by interdisciplinary tap dance artist Michael J. Love at the internationally acclaimed Fusebox Festival.
Ideal participants in this workshop will have good verbal/vocal skills, be familiar with dance, theater and performance in general, and be intirgued with the idea of describing live performance in real time without a set script.
Audio Description provides access to visual elements – action, costumes, settings, gestures, facial expressions, objects and other visually communicative elements – of performance. It provides clear and engaging descriptions of the meaningful visual details of a performance that might otherwise be inaccessible to audience members who are Blind or have low vision. Live performance description is generally provided via a closed FM system to individual audience members.
REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/audio-description-workshop-tickets-530980907187
If you need scholarships to participate, please email dance@artsparktx.org
