Presents Square-Eye Online Festival | 3-6 December 2020 | Watch on Facebook LIVE & ZOOM
Age 10 – 16 years Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Free dance workshops with Deaf Dancer Billy Read and his dance crew.
Dates Monday 30 May, Tuesday 31 May & 1st June 2022
Location: Bristnall Hall Academy, 213 Bristnall Hall Road, Oldbury, B68 9NJ.
Please book your place.
On Thursday 28th April 2022, Deaf Explorer will be hosting 2 focus groups for d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse freelancers working in the cultural or creative sector. We want to ask freelancers* who feel excluded from freelance work in the sector, including those who have additional responsibilities or barriers to developing their freelance work.
You can take part in a paid (£50.00) focus group to help develop and identify the priorities of Birmingham 2022 Festival’s Sector Development Programme, on behalf of Culture Central, Creative United and Coventry University.
**Freelancer – a person who works self-employed for several organisations. This could be in any role in the Arts such as Artists, Facilitators, Stage Managers, Technicians, Administrators and Interpreters. We hope to speak to as many people as possible.
Further details can be found below:
Date
Thursday 28th April 2022
Session Times
Group 1: Disabled and Neurodiverse Freelancers, Artists and Creatives
10.30am – 12.30pm
Group 2: d/Deaf Freelancers, Artists and Creatives (with BSL interpretation)
2.00pm – 4.00pm
Location:
Zoom* – we will send a link closer to the time
**We are also offering space and access to the Zoom call at the Deaf Explorer Office, Moseley Community Hub, 496 Moseley Road, Balsall Heath, Birmingham, B12 9AH.
If you are a Freelancer who does not identify with one of the above focus groups, but still feel excluded from freelance work in the sector, (including those who have additional or care responsibilities) please still sign up for a session – we are eager to welcome a discussion with as many Freelancers based in the West Midlands who are experiencing barriers to work.
To register your place at a focus group please complete the form below (opens as a new tab):
Focus Group signup form
This form will ask you to confirm your contact details, including the best email address to send the zoom link to. It will also ask if you have any access requirements to attend the session.
Alternatively, you can fill in the contact form below:
The Culture Recovery Fund will help Deaf explorer continue their vital work with Deaf artists to remove barriers so they can achieve their ambitions in the arts. Deaf Explorer Director Billy Read says,
“Deaf Explorer are excited to receive this Cultural Recovery Grant from DCMS and Arts Council England.
Before Covid-19 we massively changed the lives of deaf artists. During Covid-19 our relationships with artists changed and we could not plan, find partners and fund-raise for new projects.
This grant will celebrate and raise our profile with a 2-day festival called SQUARE EYE that will bring Deaf artists together, commission new work and reach our deaf audiences.
We will also fundraise to deliver outstanding community participation projects that will involve a new generations of deaf artists.”
Dame Evelyn Glennie said, “I am delighted that Deaf Explorer has this Cultural Recovery Grant. This is a unique company with immense expertise amongst the artists that they collaborate with and support. They access producers that facilitate deaf artists to pioneer inclusive new work. The grant will help key staff return to work, fund-raise and rebuild confidence in their network of deaf artists, who have been devastated by the impact of Covid-19 on the cultural sector. New marketing and promotion will profile the company and help them find new cultural partners, wanting to improve access. I hope for them to quickly return the CIC, to a successful not for profit, inspiring the deaf community to be creative and involved in the arts.”
Culture Recovery Fund will allow Deaf explorer to support arts organisations to include deaf artists and involve deaf audiences in 2022/23.
Fantastic! Loved it, kids were captivated” – Audience Member Claire Hayward
Caroline Parker MBE (Left) Simon Gleave (Middle) Rinkoo Barpaga (Right) Outdoor Performance “Remote Control” A Deaf Explorer and Open Theatre Production
Ariel Fung, Ben Randall and Billy Read in a brand-new outdoor dance performance for Appetite, Stoke-on-Trent.
Tale of Tresses explores the stories of female migrants and refugees through dance, jewellery, and costume. Maral’s contemporary jewellery, made with human hair, is used in performance and worn by a solo dancer. Each piece of jewellery represents an element of Maral’s identity, and the jewellery as a collection represents Maral’s intersectionality as a Deaf Female Refugee.
“MADE IN INDIA BRITAIN”
A new solo performance created in Rinkoo Barpaga’s first language of BSL.
Billy Read will co-create with young deaf and hearing people. He will make a dance show that tells a story that aims to improve community cohesion and reduce isolation due to language and communication barriers.
The project will have three phases; all phases will be open to hearing people and Billy will use BSL interpreters throughout the process to provide access for hearing participants. This includes siblings, who Billy anticipates attending in phase two and three. The first phase will be an opportunity for young deaf people to participate. During this phase, Billy Read and Ariel Fung will run two workshops, one with the group age 8 – 14 and one with the group age between 14 and 18.
The second phase will be an opportunity for the young people to move from participants to co-creators. In phase two, young people can write, tell stories, use sign language and choreograph movement. The offer for young Deaf people will be amazing. To use dance to bring hearing and deaf audiences together. The hope is that the excitement around Rose Asyling Ellis, the Deaf actress from Eastenders currently on Strictly Come Dancing, and national coverage of Deaf Men Dancing will encourage deaf young people to perform publicly to hearing audiences.
During Lockdown, Billy encouraged physical activity amongst Deaf young people by making online dance tutorials. Billy aims to bring this experience to the project and encourage deaf young people to build their fitness and stamina to dance in the performance.
The aim is to build confidence and self-esteem amongst deaf young people, who over the last 18 months have experienced language deprivation and isolation.
Billy and his team of dancers are excellent role models for deaf young people and will improve mental wellbeing amongst deaf young people.
Phase three will be the creation and touring of the new outdoor work through liaison with BID Services and Deaf Cultural Centre, where there will be a performance for Deaf Community and also at Braidwood School where there will performance for pupils and parents. Billy will also contact mac and the Birmingham Hippodrome for bookings of outdoor events during the Cultural Festival.
Billy has previously worked in Europe with Opera Circus. Billy was part of the artistic team delivering the Complete Freedom of Truth. Billy made dance work about oppression with young people. Billy aims to find a narrative that is relevant to the young people in Birmingham during the Commonwealth Games.
In November 2019 Billy Read spent a week co-creating at Knotty Ash Primary School with a deaf group of children and a hearing group of children. The hope is that participants will have a fantastic journey into what is possible using dance.
Rinkoo Barpaga Chair of Deaf Explorer says, “I am very impressed with Billy Read. The story is definitely so unique. The mix of storytelling and dancing are really interesting. Also, I could see the younger audiences really enjoy it. This is a new generation of Deaf people who were interesting in music and dancing.”
Sonny Nwachukwu, dancer and choreographer said, “I truly believe that the dance show appealed to young Deaf people, I looked around and saw the smiles, the interest and the eagerness from everyone but especially the youngen’s. It actually got me really emotional at one stage as I saw the inspiration and role modeling.”
Young People will attend dance workshops, and after the dance workshop they will learn how Billy Read tells stories using a blend of sign language, visual vernacular and movement. Billy will then support young people to tell their own stories using his style of dance theatre-making.
Billy Read’s artistic practice has an astonishing impact on young people. For example, Billy Read and Ariel Fung worked for a week with looked after young people in Stoke on Trent with remarkable results. They also worked with young people with complex needs in Doncaster. Each week-long residency results in a dance performance. Kath Sweeney from Knotty Ash primary went on to say, “The whole week was an incredible success, true inclusion at its very best. I must tell you that nearly all of the children you worked with went on to create their own dance piece for the school talent show – the staff were amazed at how the children were able to transfer the skills they had learnt from you to choreograph their own piece.
Thank you all so very much for a transformational week – we will remember it for many years to come and would love to stay in touch in the future.”
In 2020 Deaf Explorer successfully applied to Thrive. The research question, “Can the emerging acceptance of online learning bring deaf role models into the learning environment for deaf and hard of hearing children, and can online access bring a wider audience of participants to Deaf artists?”
Screen Shot from Billy Reads Online TutorialsBilly Read is a Deaf performing artist who specialises in Hip Hop theatre and street dance. Billy created a series of street dance tutorial videos on YouTube in BSL for Deaf Children to enjoy, be inspired and learn new skills during the lockdown. School’s requested that Billy Read present a thirty-minute dance workshop online, live and run a workshop for all the children in the class. The session happened at the same time each week. The live stream was fully accessible with communication support and voice over by Deaf Explorer. Our promotion involved 24 schools with a Deaf Resource Base (HIRB). Cycle 1 reached 150 primary school pupils and 36 secondary school pupils, Cycle 2 involved 149 pupils, and cycle 3 delivered more sessions, and the number of participants increased to 185 pupils.
Amongst the schools participating: Braidwood School for the Deaf in Birmingham, Deaf Support Base in Vyners School, Middlesex, Kingsbury Green Primary, London, Knotty Ash, Liverpool, Lythe Primary school (North Yorkshire), Thomas Hinderwell Primary Academy, Scarborough.
Screen Grab of love online Tutorial to schoolsAfter each cycle, the number of schools participating increased. Billy Read demonstrated, Deaf leadership amongst hearing pears. He was a Deaf Role model, improving the self-esteem and confidence of young deaf children. Overall, the project allowed Deaf explorer to build strong connections in schools with Deaf children. Billy Read designed an accessible and achievable learning session that sustained interest and involvement by Deaf children.
Together, we inspired deaf children, proven by the letter to Blue Peter from a deaf child requesting that Billy Read receive a Blue Peter Badge for his hard work.
In January 2022, Deaf Explorer organised a week of Research and Development at Attenborough Arts Centre. Maral decided to use this time to develop her own story through movement and jewellery with a professional dancer and choreographer. Maral’s artwork is about the loss of freedom amongst women in oppressive regimes. At Attenborough Arts Centre Maral continued to merge art forms. The aim was to create a performance for refugees by adding movement and dance as performative features to tell a symbolic story about migration from a woman’s perspective.
Deaf Explorer co-ordinated access for Maral so that the artist could successfully collaborate with hearing Choreographer Neus Gill Cortes, Movement Artist Shelley Eva Haden, and Digital designer Ben Glover. There was also a focus on Well-being due to the artists dealing with trauma. There was an opportunity here to explore the quality of movement with jewellery and hair.
Click here to watch our interview with Choreographer Neus Gill Cortes.
Maral worked with the creative team to tell three stories that infer the experience of refugees. When thinking about the visual narrative and its audience of refugees, Maral wanted to expose difficult experiences, trauma, lack of trust, uncertainty, avoidance of the truth. The artist explains that the work is in a continuum and does not see an end to Tales of Tresses and will use touring as an opportunity for performative actions with her jewellery.
Click here to view behind-the-scenes footage during the Attenborough residency.
We would love to have a conversation with venues, organisations, and producers about this project to begin planning the next development stage! If you are interested, please do get in touch.
On Saturday 29th January 2022, the terrace at Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, became the backdrop for Rinkoo Barpaga’s R&D sharing of his new show, Remote Control.
About Remote Control:
Rinkoo has spent time exploring and testing new work for a family audience, directed by Richard Hayhow (Open Theatre) and working with Deaf actors, Caroline Parker (Graeae, Derby Theatre), Christopher Laing (HSBC Advert 2021, Deaf Talent Collective), and hearing actor, Simon Gleave (David Glass Ensemble, Created A Monster.)
The team has been exploring themes of power and control, using physical theatre, puppetry techniques, and a non-verbal theatrical performance style that is accessible to most audiences.
“A very warm, welcoming, funny and accessible show”
— Audience Member
Together, the team created a series of frameworks that set up situations, and then allow spontaneous improvisation and engagement with a live audience that should result in engaging and comedic short scenes.
Did you see the show? Click here to add feedback if you watched the performance.
About Rinkoo Barpaga:
Rinkoo Barpaga, started as a deaf comedian in New York. Rinkoo is a powerful and gripping storyteller, and has made two sell-out touring shows, ‘Am I Funny?’ And ‘Made In India / Britain.’
In early 2020, Rinkoo was awarded an Offsite Seed Commission to develop his work for outdoor festivals in the Midlands, due to Covid -19 this work was postponed. The Midlands Art Centre has agreed to provisionally book the work for the summer of 2022, for the new outdoor space at Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham.
Pre-pandemic, Rinkoo had already decided to adapt his work to outdoor spaces, hoping to reach a wider audience including Deaf audiences in Black and Asian communities. Deaf audiences have traditionally not attended theatre as these buildings are cultural and physical barriers.
Deaf Explorer were delighted to involve Birmingham Deaf Community in an exhibition at mac’s Community Gallery. Craft space wanted to capture and commemorate D/deaf lived experience and associated stories of courage. Community workshops created a sense of connection amongst Deaf people in Birmingham after months of isolation. During this time, young deaf people experienced fewer opportunities to use BSL.
The proposal by Craft Space to encourage deaf people to make medals was a small act, that developed conversations about who in deaf people’s lives showed courage and deserved a medal. Many young people thought they deserved a medal for all their hard work over the past 16 months. Maral and Asnath Losala delivered the activities. We were pleased that our social media campaign on Facebook worked and women from the deaf community visited the exhibition’s opening. We found out that they want to start their own craft group and similar to the theme of “We are commoners” occupy a public space.
The group of medals made by the deaf community were displayed online and at Midlands Arts Centre Community Gallery as part of Craftspace’s exhibition We are Commoners. The exhibition was on from October 2021 until January 2022. It provided an opportunity for the D/deaf community to showcase their creativity and stories to raise visibility and awareness of deaf people for a wider audience to appreciate.
Thank you Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq for doing the BSL tour. Thank you to Jo Carlton at Bid Services and Braidwood School as well as deaf artists from around the country working in Birmingham at the time of the exhibition.
Please scan the QR code to watch example of BSL video telling the participants stories behind the medal.
Stans cafe contacted Deaf Explorer about working with deaf actors on a new project and we provided advice and support, building confidence about working with deaf actors.
Caroline Parker in a Rehearsal by Stans cafeAs James Yarker, Stan’s Cafe’s artistic director said
“Deaf Explorer’s expertise and experience made everything extremely easy for us and allowed us to focus our energies on the art. We learn a lot from them and our deaf cast members.It was so gratifying to hear Mary—Jane Russell de Clifford describe our collaboration with such enthusiasm. We are looking to extend our collaboration by making a bilingual BSL/English family show together”
We are delighted that actor and theatre-maker Mary-Jayne Russel de Clifford found the experience of working with Stan’s cafe amazing.
The following video was shown to Stan’s cafe Board and the company aim to continue involving deaf actors in future work.
Laura Waller, Access manager for Coventry City of Culture 2021, contacted Deaf Explorer to help promote participation by the deaf community at a relaxed evening of the art installation ‘House of Feeling”. The BSL Tour by Rinkoo Barpaga was prepared by Deaf Explorer and informed Rinkoo about Rave Culture in Coventry, so he could relay in BSL the story behind the exhibition to deaf audiences.
Laura has continued to ask Deaf Explorer to promoto events and activities. BSL video’s by Deaf People are posted on facebook get the message out about the unique events for Coventry City of Culture 2021. Avergage engagement on facebook for just over 30 people and just under 500 people reached.
Deaf Explorer created a marketing campaign for “House of Feeling” and posts engaged over 147 people and reached 3000, with 68 shares.
Deaf Explorer 