Out There Arts Partners with DC4CC
Working to develop our access
Out There Arts is proud to announce to pair with a cohort of six selected artists/producers that will be paired with six organisations in Phase 2 of the Disability Consultancy for Creative Change (DC4CC) research project focusing on East of England.
The six artists/producers:
Suzie Birchwood
Casper Love
Edi McGurk
Sonny Nwachukwu
Bibi June Schwithal
Catherine Turner
The selected disabled practitioners will be paired respectively with:
Out There Arts, DanceEast, SPILL Festival, Metal, HighTide, New Wolsey Theatre.
About DC4CC:
The DC4CC is Liz Counsell, Kate Marsh & Linda Rocco. They came together in 2021 to undertake research into the experiences of disabled artists and audiences in accessing arts and cultural venues. The culminating discussions, which can be found here, have informed the development of Phase 2.
Phase 2 sees a two-month organisational placement of the selected artists/producers to develop a programme of professional development for disabled artists and producers. This process is developed in dialogue with the partner organisations to better understand the sector’s big picture. The professional development plans devised during the placement will be part of a wider nationally significant project in Phase 3, to bring the research into action and make tangible changes to the performing arts landscape in the East region for D/deaf and disabled artists and producers.
The DC4CC is commissioned by Arts Council England and supported by Metal, Cambridge Junction and Colchester Arts Centre.
Meet the artists/producers
Sonny Nwachukwu
Sonny is a writer, director, and founder of Gateway Arts
Sonny Nwachukwu
Sonny is a writer, director, and founder of Gateway Arts Productions based in Peterborough. His work is multi-disciplinary spanning across writing, poetry, dance, theatre and anything that lies beyond. His work primarily focuses on the African Diaspora. Sonny is a storyteller that incorporates dance and literature making his work relevant, unique, vibrant and thought-provoking. His academic background in Psychology informs much of his work and he is keen to tackle issues seen as taboo or ‘different’. Sonny received his dance training from authentic West African and dancehall teachers. He has performed with numerous Afrobeats and dancehall artists working across the UK and has performed at venues including Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Theatre and SSE Wembley stadium. In 2019 Sonny was awarded an Unlimited and Spirit of 2012 commission, to create his first full length work entitled Circles, A choreopoem. Other current works and projects include Triple Threat (2019) at Poplar Union. Award-nominated, Saturn Returns for Unlimited Festival, Southbank Centre, Brixton House & Riley Theatre (2022), Eve and Cain at Queens Theatre. Sonny has been a member of the Soho Theatre’s Writers Lab from 2020-2021, as well as the Graeae Beyond Programme and the Tamasha Director Programme. Sonny is currently an Associate Artist at Graeae Theatre Company in London. Sonny’s writing was nominated for the 2021Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowships and is a published author of Saturn Returns (published by Team Angelica). He has written articles for Disability Arts Online and Unlimited, amongst others. As founder of Gateway Arts, Sonny aims to produce, empower and provoke artists from a range of backgrounds and abilities to create new and radical artistic works across text, theatre and live performance. Instagram: gateway_arts1 // Twitter: sj_nwa
Suzie Birchwood
Suzie Birchwood is a Dancer and Dance Educator specialising
Suzie Birchwood
Suzie Birchwood is a Dancer and Dance Educator specialising in diversity and equality in dance. At 16 Suzie achieved her dream of training to be a professional ballet dancer with a full scholarship at the London Studio Centre. Weeks before completing her first year, Suzie developed a profoundly disabling neurological condition, Generalized Dystonia. As a result she lost the movement in her legs and experienced painful and incapacitating spasms throughout her body. Over the following years, using her wheelchair, Suzie carved out a different method of dancing, pioneering a new approach to classical repertoire. She worked as a guest artist with The Scottish Ballet, Ballet Cymru, Candoco, StopGap and GDance, as well as creating and performing her own works, including a double bill at Saddlers Wells. Through continued research and discovery into her own unique physiology, she was not only able to continue working in the form she loved, but also to regain mobility and better management of her condition. Further medical intervention and neuroplastic brain retraining has bought Suzie to a near impossible recovery. She started a family, is able to walk with crutches and live an independent and fulfilling life, hand in hand with her dystonia. Driven by her experiences as a disabled dancer, Suzie’s choreography is defined by the discovery and nurture of individuals and their unique movement personalities. The stories that she tells through dance, express the deep link between human bodies and human experiences. Suzie now works to spread a universal approach to dance to the widest possible market through coaching and mentoring disabled artists, teachers and choreographers.