I was in São Paulo performing my solo live-art piece If These Spasms Could Speak as part of the Unlimited arts festival of work by disabled artists. I gave two performances in the Teatro Sérgio Cardoso and gave one workshop to performance students. The trip was part of the larger Transform programme which is operating between Scotland and Brazil.
I saw one other piece by a Brazilian disabled artist. I was really interested to see how work by disabled artists differed from back home – in the UK work in this area has been around since the 70s and so has come from a certain perspective that can be quite political in nature. The work I saw made me very interested in the idea of working with disabled artists from other countries – to look at what we can learn from each other and be excited by the kind of work we could create together. I also ran one workshop that examined the process that I used to put Spasms together and then enabled the participants to use their own childhood stories, their own perceptions of their bodies and their own physicalities, to create miniature performances.
I was most surprised by the way that my show was received. Before going over I’d been worried that it was a very localised script –that much of the humour was specific to Scotland and wouldn’t translate well to a different culture. I also worried that by having to read the translation of the text as I performed it, all of the Portuguese-speaking audience would be out of sync with the jokes and with the poignant moments in the play. However the translation team and other support staff employed by the British Council did an excellent job and their work showed that there are many universal aspects to the show and the ideas behind it.
Everything we do in creating work is steeped in historical situations and perceptions. I think by working together – by combining these differing experiences – we can create very interesting work. If I could bring anything back from Brazil, it would be to take a more open approach to the body and how we feel about our own physicalities. It is a stereotype but British people really are quite paranoid about how our bodies are perceived.
In 2014 I will be touring Spasms around the UK and further afield – I’m due to create a number of new pieces including a performance looking at the connections between the disabled body, sport and achievement. I’m also directing a sex comedy for Birds of Paradise Theatre Company and developing a play around concepts of motherhood and loss.
