Vacancies

Background

Akademi currently run dance and movement workshops exploring creative means of communication and expression within three special needs schools; Papillion House, Cambridge School and Manor School – as part of the Reach Out and Reveal project. The schools cater for young people with profound autistic spectrum disorders and complex needs, including social, emotional and mental health issues, speech, language and communication needs and learning and cognition difficulties.

Ideas Workshops

We now wish to directly address the lack of autism-informed performance work, ensuring these young people’s voices and creative ideas are reflected in the work. The choreographer will be expected to observe and participate in the workshops in the three schools (led by the current resident dance artist), respond to and capture the dynamics of the children’s expression and ideas in the creative process. The choreographer will then spend time in a studio with two dancers to explore these ideas and begin to develop material toward an informal sharing with SEN teachers, parents and carers. This sharing will take the form of a presentation with movement based on the children’s responses, illustrating the beginnings of sensitive, appropriate movement language, and should speak to both the young people that inspired the work and all other audience members. Feedback from the sharing will ensure that we shape the theatre sensitively and maintain a high-quality artistic experience. This will then inform further phases of research and development.

Please note that whilst the young people are integral to the creation of the piece, and the final piece must resonate with them, they will not necessarily perform in the final outcome.