Creative ID: 675
Waterview
My arts or creative practice (including details about my specific focus within that art form/practice and my strengths):
I am interested in working within accessibility and the performing arts. I have a background in holding comedy workshops for young people with learning disabilities. I have taught these workshops in Melbourne, Darwin, Wellington, and Auckland. I suggest a series of 1 to 2-hour workshops, held once a week over a 6-month period, developing skills and working towards a showing.
My track record of experience and success - or the track record of experience and success of the creative or artist that I will partner with:
I am a comedian and theatre maker with 20 years of experience making original, award-winning performance that has toured locally and internationally. Myself and my collaborator formed a theatre company in 2003. We specialised in silent, physical comedy shows that owed much to the likes of Buster Keaton and Chaplin. Years of honing and evolution have resulted in a style of theatre that is physical, surreal, funny, and beautiful. Further details are available on request.
Describe the experience you have had working with children or young people, teaching or facilitating creative processes:
I am recently back from Melbourne, where I worked closely with Down Syndrome Victoria to develop a series of workshops including a 4-month bi-weekly online series during the 7-month lockdown in 2020. I also held school holiday programmes for aboriginal youth in 2013.
In New Zealand I taught workshops within the disability sector in Wellington and Auckland, with the goal of concentrating on comedy. Comedy as an art form is not often explored amongst young people with disabilities. I have created a workshop that seeks to unlock participants from the confines of having to ‘be normal’. Two hours of joy and laughs.
Why I want to be part of the Creatives in Schools programme and how my involvement will link to my creative practice:
I started working with young people with learning disabilities in 2014, when myself and my nephew (who has mild cerebral palsy) made a show together about his journey through ‘special needs class. He wanted us to connect with other kids who were going through a similar educational journey. So, we held a workshop at a local boy’s high school. After that … my interest was piqued. Soon after I moved to Australia where I dove into this sector gradually over 6 years. Now, back home in Aotearoa, I am keen to apply what I have learnt to working with Kiwi youth. I am constantly seeking to expand what it is that I teach, to able-bodied practitioners as well as those with learning disabilities. Having a weekly space and group to grow with would be a dream.