Liverpool's found its voice

Liverpool's Disability and Deaf Arts (DaDa) are getting ready to celebrate their tenth annual DaDaFest from 18 November to 6 December with theatre, performance art, dance, visual art, workshops, talks, conference and film on the theme of "objects of curiosity and desire". Kelly Mullan has been talking to its leading light

According to DaDa’s founder and chief executive, Ruth Gould, it seems the story of how DaDaFest has grown to become the biggest deaf and disability arts festival in the world is just as compelling as any narrative in the programme.

“DadaFest is not about doing nice things for disabled people. The politics behind it have been to get disability arts into the mainstream. In the early days there was a lot of ranting and raving at councillors. We were shouting: ‘We’re not included! Let us in!’

Now we’re recognised as part of Liverpool’s cultural diversity and the ‘big eight’ mainstream venues come to us; seven of those eight are involved this year.

“There’s been a really great culture change in Liverpool. This was partly made possible by the legacy of the European City of Culture and it’s partly been achieved by us being very passionate and just not letting it go. Disability affects us all and we’ve fought to get people to own that.

“Every year the programming has gone up a level. Now our artist director, Garry Robson, has brought disabled artists from across the globe to Liverpool.”

In a programming twist, one international artist that DaDaFest is particularly excited about is non-disabled Australian-Greek performance artist, Stelarc who has had a third ear grown in a lab and implanted in his arm. Stelarc will be in conversation with Liz Carr at the Roy Stringer memorial lecture discussing his work on the subjects of the obsolescence of the human body, cyborgization and human-machine interfaces.

International highlights include: GIMP, a dance company from New York described as “an extraordinary landscape of limbs”; Krip Hop Nation, hip hop artists from Africa, USA, Germany and the UK; and Swedish theatre company Moomsteatern performing the “darkly humorous and grotesque” Compagnie of Strangers.

Ruth Gould asks festival-goers to keep an open mind: “In Look at Me, an exhibition of photos of South African disabled women, all the women’s impairments are described.

That’s just not something we do from a social model perspective but to create an international debate we have to not be judgmental about language.

“There’s a lot we can learn from other countries. There’s a Swedish theatre company that pays its learning disabled actors. That just wouldn’t be possible here because of the inflexibility of the benefits system so you get situations where non-disabled people are paid and disabled people are volunteers.”

At the heart of DaDaFest is the grass roots work engaging with disabled artists and communities. Having struggled to find her voice as a disabled person, Ruth Gould has worked to develop and support the Young DaDaFest strand of the festival: “As a disabled child I learned to keep quiet and it’s only in the last 15 years that I’ve found my voice. Young people are central to the festival and through Young Dadafest they can support each other and have a sense of status.

“In 2000 I spoke to a group of disabled young people about opportunities in the arts. Afterwards their teacher said to me: ‘How dare you tell these children they can work in the arts! They’ll never work anywhere!’

“Access to Work has made some difference and DaDaFest has helped as well. I did some research last year and found that 75 per cent of the artists involved with DadaFest said we’d helped them find employment in the arts.”

Returning festival favourites are Julie McNamara, Liz Carr, Mat Fraser, and Laurence Clark whose new show heralds a new development for DaDaFest says Ruth Gould: “Our message is finally being taken up by statutory bodies! Laurence Clark’s What’s the Best Medicine is being sponsored by our Primary Care Trust. The show was inspired by the remark made during the American healthcare debate that if Stephen Hawking had been British he wouldn’t have lived! Laurence Clark has travelled there to explore how they perceive the NHS and to compare healthcare systems.

“I know our festival saves lives by putting positive images of disability out there. I’ve had facebook messages to say ‘the first time I saw a disabled person like me was at DadaFest.’ Things like Carnival of the Unexpected are a chance to rebel against ‘day centre control’.

“There’s a bit of a cloud over this festival as we wait to hear what the Spending Review will mean for the arts sector but we’re still building momentum for 2012. DaDaFest is no longer an ‘outsider’ event: we’re affirming disabled lives in the mainstream.”