In this newsletter we focus on East Asia, giving an overview of the British Council's work in the region, looking at Hijinx Theatre's recent initiative to export its academy model to China, and profiling the arts and disability sector in Korea. We also explore one of the world's first disability arts archives and get reflections from the Unlimited Symposium.

Hijinx is a Welsh theatre company who work with learning-disabled actors and host the biennial Hijinx Unity Festival. They also run a number of ‘Hijinx Academies’ which develop learning-disabled talent. Following a tour to China of Hijinx's production Meet Fred, Joe Turnbull speaks to Chief Executive Clare Williams about the company’s international work, including plans to export its academy model overseas.

In the latest of our series of country profiles, disability rights lawyer, dance artist and theatre-maker WonYoung Kim and coach, digital dance producer and co-founder of the Sync leadership programme Sarah Pickthall give an overview of disability arts practice in Korea. 



Read the profile of disability arts work in Korea
 

Arts and Disability is a major focus for the British Council across East Asia. We hear from the British Council’s regional Theatre and Dance Programme Manager, Carole McFadden, and in-country Arts Managers from Taiwan and Singapore Shu-chun Lai and Sarah Meisch Lionetto, respectively, to get a broad overview of the programmes going on across the region.

Read about the British Council's work in East Asia

In June 2018, Shape Arts launched the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (NDACA), one of the first of its kind in the world, which chronicles the heritage story of the UK’s Disability Arts Movement and catalogues key pieces from it for posterity. Joe Turnbull speaks to David Hevey, NDACA Project Director and CEO of Shape Arts about this landmark archive.​

Read about NDACA

Following the Unlimited Symposium which took place 3-5 September in London, Senior Producer of Unlimited Jo Verrent and panellists Andrew Miller, Outi Salonlahti and Sari Salovaara give their reflections on the state of play for the disability arts sector, looking to the future to identify barriers and opportunities.


Read the Unlimited Symposium reflections

Every year, Candoco Dance Company host an ‘International Summer Lab’ bringing together dance practitioners from all over the world to share the company’s approach, exchange ideas and create connections in a professional training environment. This year’s lab took place in August at the University of Roehampton. The company give an overview of the programme and speak to one of this edition’s practitioners.

Read about Candoco's International Summer Lab

Opera North has released a filmed recording of its critically acclaimed production Trouble in Tahiti, in a number of accessible formats including British Sign Language interpreted, audio-described and captioned, commissioned by the Space. Opera North offers an Access Membership Scheme which has been designed to streamline the booking experience for disabled people and also regularly has audio described, signed and captioned performances for most of their major productions.

Watch Trouble in Tahiti in accessible formats

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