Step by Step – Wheel by Wheel

The partners of this Perform Europe project – Helsingør Teater (Denmark), Västsvenska Turnerande Sommar Teatern (VTST) (Sweden), Proyecto Colectivo HQPC (Spain), Mozaik (France) – join forces to give more visibility to artists with disabilities, who today are underrepresented both on and behind the stage. The project includes two partners with a strong track record of presenting inclusive works and two partners with little or no experience in this area yet with a well-established presenting context. As such, it is a pilot project.
On the one hand, artistic works such as the one included in this project, Habrá Que Ponerse Cachas (HQPC in short), led by an emerging disabled woman choreographer, are still very rare. In general, disabled artists need more visibility and recognition as valuable professionals in the performing arts field. On the other hand, for the presenters, budgets and lack of know-how are some possible obstacles to programming artists with disabilities.
Step by Step – Wheel by Wheel consists of a tour of the performance HQPC that will start in Denmark and Sweden in early June 2022 and conclude in Montpellier, France. Live presentations will be outdoors, accompanied by an after-talk. In the context of the conference Nordic Street – Sustainability of the arts, which addresses art and sustainability and takes place in Helsingborg (Denmark) on 9-12 June 2022, a digital presentation of the piece will be shown, followed by an after-talk with the artists via zoom.
The pillar of this partnership is to empower and give visibility to artists with disabilities and disseminate knowledge about inclusive works within relevant partnership networks locally. The project is a pilot in engaging and presenting inclusive work in a festival context by building capacity and spreading the knowledge gained during the project. The pilot provides an opportunity to create momentum for more inclusive theatre performances in festival programming.
Focusing on visibility and awareness of inclusive performances within the professional field also adds to the sustainability of the partnership, going beyond a buyer-seller relationship and into a knowledge-exchanging partnership sharing the high-level expertise each of the partners has.
On top of that, the wellbeing of the artists is the highest priority for Step by Step. The partnership is making sure that the performers feel safe all along a physically exhausting tour outside of their hometown, which is also an opportunity and an important experience in their artistic development. Presenting a performance in a public space with disabled artists for the first time requires re-thinking and a change in practice so that the process is as smooth and safe as possible for producers and presenters alike.