Leading up to 2nd Indonesian Ballet Gala, Ballet.ID collaborated with the British Council and Candoco Dance Company from the UK to create a special piece which includes non-disabled and disabled dancers alike. CanDoDance started with an audition of several dancers and finally 14 dancers are chosen - eight non-disabled dancer and six deaf dancers. For one week, these dancers trained under Candoco's choreographers, Mirjam Gutner and Tanja Erhart. Despite their differences, they proved everyone that their unique individualities can be merged into a wonderful dance piece which was showcased during a work-in-progress show in Gedung Teater Jakarta on July 7th last week.
"These 14 dancers come from different genre of dance." – Mariska Febriyani, Founder of Ballet ID.
Mariska who initiated this program said that this a groundbreaking project in Indonesia. She had her doubts at first. But, when she attended the Unlimited Festival of Disability Arts in Scotland as the Indonesian delegates for the British Council last year, she was deeply inspired.
"I realised that human limitation is not caused by our physical limitation, but rather, our own fearful thoughts."
Disability arts is one of British Council's main concern and a huge theme of UK/Indonesia 2016-18 programme. Through programme like CanDoDance, British Council aims to promote the work of the exciting generation of excellent disabled artists, disabled-led companies and inclusive arts organisations. It also aims to share the ways arts organisations are increasing access to the arts for disabled people as audiences and visitors.
"We want everyone to be able to involve themselves in creative and artistic process without having to worry about their limitations." – Paul Smith, Country Director British Council Indonesia.
