Towards sensuous ecologies, Rethinking ableism in choreographic and movement practices

The research focuses on how to expand the scope of action and perception of neurodiverse children aged six months to four years and their adults as active audiences in interrelational, immersive sensory environments.

The purpose of the research is to develop new transdisciplinary artistic methods that are attuned to neurodivergent perception and produce new knowledge concerned with fostering sensory immediacy, kinesthetic-embodied response, affect, and intersubjectivity.The three-year research consists of multifaceted, ongoing, emergent processes of discovery, reflection, and reshaping.

It interlaces practice and reflection through a cyclical series of work with movement, choreography and installation making in collaboration with neurodiverse and neurotypical dancers and audience.The collaborative endeavor raises questions: How can artistic research address and overturn normative demands and judgments placed on neurodiverse children and their adults; how can body and performance practices respond to and be informed by this diverse audience; how can immersive performance encompass ‘competing accommodations’ of an integrated audience?Ultimately this research aims to develop practices that can lead to devising potentially equalizing and inclusive environments that neurodivergent and neurotypical audiences can enjoy together - an open-ended experience that does not set fixed goals but rather creates the conditions for the audience to explore a new form of being-in-the-world.