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News / Announcements

Dark Room Ballet at “Eco Somatic readings, conversations and movement” (April 26th at 6 PM EDT)

You are invited to join tonight’s:

Eco Somatic readings, conversations and movement centering disability and LGBTIQA+ ecologies of pain and joy with the environment.

Featuring Stephanie Heit, Petra Kuppers, Krishna Washburn, Taja Will, and moira williams.

Where: Online Zoom Meeting

Zoom Registration link: Eco Somatic Registration April 26th

Access Menu:

  • Access Doula
  • Participation Guide
  • AI Captioning + ASL


Please contact moira670@gmail.com for more accessibility information requests and needs

Flyer Image Description: A tree filled image with a close up of two trees and their large textured bark. Between the two trees a hand from the forearm down and palm forward spreads its fingers. It looks like a ghost hand that is filled with the surrounding forest life. The entire background image is heavily saturated with almost neon reds, pinks, yellows, blues, greens and purples. On top of the glowing forest is white text saying: Eco Somatic readings and conversations: disability ecologies of pain and joy with the environment. Stephanie Heit, Petra Kuppers, Krishna Washburn, Taja Will, moira williams. Online April 26th 6-8pm EST/5-7pm CT/3-5pm PST. Access Menu: Access Doula, Participation Guide, AI Captioning.

Facilitators:

Stephanie Heit is a queer disabled poet, dancer, teacher, and co director of Turtle Disco, a somatic writing space on Anishinaabe land in Ypsilanti, Michigan. She is a Zoeglassia Fellow, and the author of PSYCH MURDERS (Wayne State University Press, 2022) and The Color She Gave Gravity (Operating System, 2017). Stephanie is an active member of the Olimpias; an international disability performance collective. She co-directed the Asylum Project (2015-2019); an experimental and community practice investigation into the many meanings of asylum. Stephanie is bipolar, a mad activist, and a shock/psych system survivor. Link to Stephanie’s website is HERE.

Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a disability culture activist, a wheelchair dancer, and a community performance artist. Petra grounds herself in disability culture methods. She uses eco somatics, performance, and speculative writing to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. She has been engaged in community dance and disability culture production since the late 80s. She continues to lead workshops internationally, in these forms as well as in disability-culture adapted social somatics. She is the Artistic Director of The Olimpias, an international disability culture collective, and co-creates Turtle Disco, a somatic writing studio, with her wife, poet and dancer Stephanie Heit, from their home in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on Three Fires Confederacy Territory, colonially known as Ypsilanti, Michigan. A link to Petra’s website is HERE.

Krishna Christine Washburn is artistic director and instructor for Dark Room Ballet, and co-directed the Telephone Film. She has an M.Ed. from Hunter College, BA from Barnard College, and is certified by the ACSM in biomechanics. She speaks regularly on self-audio description and educating blind/visually impaired dance students. A link to Krishna’s website is HERE.

Taja Will is a non-binary, chronically ill, queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee. They are a performer, choreographer, somatic therapist, consultant and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s artistic work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through a blend of ritual, dense multi-layered worldbuilding and everyday magic. A link to Taja’s website is HERE.

moira williams is a disabled Indigenous artist, cross disability cultural activist/organizer and access doula; co-creating and weaving disability justice together with crip celebratory resistance and environmental justice. moira believes in access as art and “access intimacy” as an attitude needed to push beyond the limitations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Their often co-creative work leads with disability, stemming from the understanding that deep-rooted cultural changes must be made in arts and environmental spaces and practices to become accessible. One part of affecting change is by placing disabled artists and activists in positions of influence to shape culture from within. Another part is acknowledging that entering positions of power is not the end goal. Instead, the end goal is to co-create an active culture where power positions no longer exist. moira’s on-going work with water focuses on access intimacy and water intimacy as ways forward to accessible waterways and joy. A link to moira’s website is HERE.

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News / Announcements

REMINDER: Pro Class Starts on April 15th!

Hosted by Movement Research, Dark Room Ballet classes are designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired adults (though all are welcome).

NOTE: This is a FREE class, but donations are welcomed.

Dark Room Ballet Pro Class

Saturdays, April 15 – June 3, 2023

4 PM to 5:30 PM (Eastern / New York Time)

This workshop is offered online via Zoom – participants can attend any sessions.

To register, please email: 
info@darkroomballet.com and let us know which sessions you would like to attend

Who can take Dark Room Ballet Pro Class? 

If you have been studying in Dark Room Ballet Open Level class regularly, and feel confident in your use of tape for orientation and your basic ballet vocabulary, you can take Dark Room Ballet Pro Class.

If you are a blind or visually impaired professional or pre-professional dancer, or a blind or visually impaired dancer who regularly studies in ballet classes designed for sighted people, you can take this class.

If you aren’t sure if you’re ready, ask Krishna during Question and Answer time in Monday night Open Level class (odds are, if she recognizes your voice before you self-identify, she will say yes). If you’ve never taken Open Level, please come! This is a low support class. That means you will not receive a vocabulary email the night before, and the descriptions Krishna uses will rely more heavily on vocabulary than anatomical words.

What is the format of Dark Room Ballet Pro Class? 

There is a five-part barre and a two-part center, plus a ten-to-fifteen-minute lecture on how to apply blind-specific dance techniques to advanced ballet techniques. As always, there is Question and Answer time.

Here’s a list of the weeks and the lecture topics:

Session One (4/15): Fifth Position and the Challenges Maintaining Bilateral Symmetry.

Session Two (4/22): Grand Plie — Why?

Session Three (4/29): Strategies for Maximizing Balance in Center Adagio.

Session Four (5/6): Inside and Outside Turns for Dancers That Don’t Spot.

Session Five (5/13): Traveling Turns for Dancers That Don’t Spot.

Session Six (5/20): Flow State and Petite Allegro.

Session Seven (5/27): Grand Allegro and Orientation.

Session Eight (6/3): Blind Dancers, Artistic Identity, and the Difference Between Bravado and Brio.

What makes Dark Room Ballet Pro Class different from Dark Room Ballet Open Level Class?

Krishna says…

1. There is a greater assumption of prior knowledge. In addition to the assumption that students will know the complete vocabulary set of Dark Room Ballet Intro, students should also recognize the following ballet vocabulary terms: pas de cheval, penche and fondu penche, sous-sous, grand battement, glissade, jete, assemble, temps levee, fouette tendu and fouette degage, couru, detournet, soutenou, pique step, faille, developpe through passe, and should be comfortable combining promenade with other movements. 

2. The mark for the exercise is quicker. In Open Level class, we mark by practicing a complete side of the exercise at a tempo that is similar to the music. In Pro Class, the mark is much more minimal. If the pattern is en croix or through alternating legs, the pattern might not be marked at all! You might find that the exercises in Pro Class are not actually more difficult than those in Open Level, but they require you to use your logical thinking more and your memory more. This is the case for Pro Classes for sighted people as well, in case you were curious!

3. The verbal description is simpler. In Open Level class, we’re used to hearing Krishna saying as much as she possibly can: anatomical words, body sensations, and ballet vocabulary all mixed together. Krishna’s descriptions are going to sound much more like the descriptions that she, herself, hears in technique class: mostly ballet vocabulary, with certain specific anatomical cues. She will sound less like a computer assistant and more like a human, but she promises to never, ever shut up!

4. You’ll have more chances with certain exercises. For most exercises, you’ll have two chances to master (same across two classes), but there will be other exercises that will carry across three classes.

5. You get a mini lecture on a specific advanced ballet movement concept as it pertains to blind dance technique specifically! 

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News / Announcements

APRIL WORKSHOPS — No Diagram Anatomy: The Distal & Proximal Arm Complex (ARM CLASS)

Hosted by Movement Research, Dark Room Ballet anatomy workshops are designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired adults (though all are welcome).

NOTE: This is a FREE class, but donations are welcomed.

No Diagram Anatomy for Dancers in the Dark Room:

➣ The Distal Arm Complex (April 1)

➣ The Proximal Arm Complex (April 8)

4 PM to 5:30 PM (Eastern / New York Time)
This workshop is offered online via Zoom – participants can attend ONE or BOTH sessions.


To register, please email: 
info@darkroomballet.com and let us know which sessions you would like to attend


Workshop Description

In this two-part workshop on the complete arm complex, we will use movement, touch, and conversation to not only cultivate scientific knowledge related to the shoulder, arm, and hand, but also initiate a higher degree of body awareness and neurological learning in this area. Evolutionary history and the marvels of human variation will also be addressed in this workshop.

No prior knowledge of human anatomy, dance, or self-audio description are required to participate, but all students will come away with deep anatomical knowledge, reduced movement anxiety, and tools to start learning how to talk about movement in a visceral way. Let’s get right down to the real nitty gritty!

Material covered in these two workshops will include:
  • The skeletal structure of the shoulder, arm, and hand
  • The locations and functions of musculature of the shoulder, arm, and hand, and their relationships to commonly known dance vocabulary
  • The nerves and nerve plexuses of the shoulder, arm, and hand, and what it means to cultivate neurological connection to this part of the body
  • The connective tissues (fascia, tendons, cartilages and ligaments) of the shoulder, arm, and hand.

All students will receive the complete script of the workshop two days beforehand, and the script can be reviewed either before or after the workshop. Although these two workshops are meant to be taken together, students are allowed to register for one or the other and they can both stand alone.

This workshop is designed for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people and does not use diagrams.


About No Diagram Anatomy Workshop Series

No Diagram Anatomy workshops are in-depth dancer’s anatomy workshops that de-center sight and are designed for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people. Participants will learn about their bodies’ layered anatomy from the outside-in using a combination of guided audio description, imagination, touch, and movement experimentation, and will also be given opportunities to practice talking about how the movement feels in the body (self-audio description).

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News / Announcements

WORKSHOP: Audio Description for Traditional Ballet Performances (Saturday, December 17th)

Hosted by Movement ResearchDark Room Ballet is designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired adults.

NOTE: This is a FREE class, but donations are welcomed.

Dark Room Ballet Presents:
Audio Description as an Art Form

Audio Description for Traditional Ballet Performances


Saturday, December 17th , 2022
4 PM to 6 PM (Eastern / New York Time)

NOTE: This is a 2 hour class

This workshop is offered online via Zoom


To register, please email: 
info@darkroomballet.com


Workshop Description

Using the framing device of Act 1, Scene 1 from Giselle, participants will develop a different set of expectations for audio described traditional ballet performances, and will co-create a manifesto for ballet audio description for wide-spread dissemination among traditional arts presenters.

Note: this is the last workshop in the Audio Description as an Art Form series, sponsored by Movement Research.

More audio description workshops are planned for 2023!

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News / Announcements

WORKSHOP: Forming Effective Audio Description Partnerships Between Dancers and Describers (Saturday, December 10th)

Hosted by Movement ResearchDark Room Ballet is designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired adults.

NOTE: This is a FREE class, but donations are welcomed.

Dark Room Ballet Presents:
Audio Description as an Art Form

Forming Effective Audio Description Partnerships Between Dancers and Describers


Saturday, December 10th , 2022
4 PM to 6 PM (Eastern / New York Time)

NOTE: This is a 2 hour class

This workshop is offered online via Zoom


To register, please email: 
info@darkroomballet.com


Workshop Description

Audio describers can create their best art when they can form real partnerships with dancers that have self-audio description skills. Whether you are a dancer who wants to hone your self-audio description skills or an audio describer who wants to learn the questions to ask when developing descriptions (and what to do with the answers), this crucial teamwork will be cultivated here.

Note: this is the second to last workshop in the Audio Description as an Art Form series, sponsored by Movement Research

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News / Announcements

Support the Telephone Film and Dark Room Ballet on #GivingTuesday!

Cyber Monday is coming to a close, which means that tomorrow is Giving Tuesday!

You may have heard about the Telephone Film project before. 

Description in caption

3 photos of Krishna side by side. In each she is holding a cordless phone to her ear in a playful pose, in front of a doorframe. She also wears one of her handmade Dark Room Adorned bracelets on her wrist.  The left photo is tinted with a blue effect, her expression coy. The second photo is tinted to look like a sepia mosaic, and she is making a surprised face. The right photo shows Krishna laughing, edited in watercolor style pink, purple and red tones.

If you haven’t, here is some more info:

The first of its kind, Telephone is a work-in-progress short film bringing awareness to the important art form of audio description (AD) for dance. Audio description allows blind and visually impaired people to be included fully in the joy of artistic expression.

Co-directed by Dark Room Ballet founder Krishna Washburn and choreographer Heather Shaw, Telephone is the first screendance film created specifically with a visually impaired audience in mind, while facilitating an immersive sensory experience for audience members of all sight levels.

Created during the global pandemic, the film features diverse disabled and non-disabled artists from across the globe, demystifying and legitimizing AD, not just as an access tool, but as a beautiful, rich art form in its own right.

Telephone is at the forefront of a completely new approach to audio description. Most of what is considered “best practice” for AD is meant for television or film. A neutral AD voice describes the visuals and does not express emotional content. In television and film, the performers’ voices (layered over the AD) inform the audience of the emotional themes. However, in dance, performers rarely speak. Is the neutral AD voice really the best choice for dance? How do those listening to the AD connect with the emotional content of the performance?

The audio describers of Telephone are reshaping the world’s perception of AD, adding emotional context and allowing their words to dance in the same way a dancer’s body moves. The result is a beautiful merge of poetry and movement, proving that:

Dance is visceral – not merely visual.

You can help!

Telephone is now holding initial screenings!

But we need to raise funds which will go directly towards the fantastic team of artists we have on board, as well as to cover costs to produce the film. Our original goal was met (covering initial costs) and we are now fundraising to cover post-production needs such as editing, accessibility providers, composers and more.

  • Interested in making a one-time donation? You can do so on Ko-Fi. 💰
  • Have you had a chance to buy a bracelet made by Krishna at DARK ROOM ADORNED? There are over 60 to chose from, like BLINDING LIGHTS. 💎
  • And don’t forget, there are 3 Dark Room Ballet tote bags left! You can buy one to support TelephoneHeels like Magnets (thanks to JazeluCreations on eBay) 👜

Before you go…

And if you just can’t stop thinking about telephones, watch the Yip Yip Martians discover a telephone on Earth and try communicating with it using different animal sounds they know on Sesame Street!

Thank you as always, for supporting the missions Dark Room Ballet and the Telephone Film!

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News / Announcements

Help Telephone Film reach its goal of 15k by Nov 15th!

Help Telephone Film reach its goal of 15k by Nov 15th! (on YouTube, captions available)

Support disability justice and arts access – help Telephone Film reach its goal of 15k by Nov 15th!

Funds raised will go directly towards the costs of post-production, bringing this important screendance documentary to the finish line.

No donation is too small and we appreciate all of your support.

Donate on Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/telephonefilm

Video description: Split screen Zoom recording of Telephone co-directors Krishna Washburn and Heather Shaw.


Follow Telephone Film!

On Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/telephone.film.AD/

On Instagram:
@telephone.film

On Vimeo and Ko-Fi, too!

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Krishna's Thoughts

Oak & Ash & Thorn (Monday Night Open Level Class)

Thanks to Clarissa and the The Longest Johns for this music request for Monday’s Dark Room Ballet Open Level ballet class!

If you’ve never taken Dark Room Ballet Open Level, this is what the pedagogical self-audio description sounds like in a typical plié combination.

This exercise integrates three types of reverence cambré; can you figure out what they all have in common? Come dance with us in the Dark Room, the music is great and the learning never ends!

Watch or listen on YouTube:

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Krishna's Thoughts News / Announcements

Dark Room Ballet on the NFB “Scene Change” Podcast (June 2022)

The Scene Change podcast is presented by the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division:

So, you're blind. Can you sing? Can you play an instrument? Can you act? Can you dance? Of course you can! 

Join Lizzy Muhammad-Park and her special guests as they pull back the curtain on their successes and struggles as blind people in the performing arts. Be educated, be challenged, be entertained, and be empowered to join us as we work together to make a "Scene Change" for the blind.

On this month’s episode:

Accessible Ballet

Join Lizzy for this month’s riveting episode featuring Krishna Washburn, a professional ballet dancer, and the artistic director and sole teacher of ‘Dark Room Ballet‘, along with The ‘Dark Room Ballet’ program coordinator and lead administrator Alejandra Ospina.

Interested in ballet? This is an online ballet course specifically for blind dancers. She’s got something for everyone. She’s got intro courses, they are eight weeks long, and she also has open courses for experienced blind professionals. They are tuition free.

In this episode, you will hear more about this exciting opportunity and all it entails.

Her summer course is beginning on June 25, and registration closes on June 18, 2022. Sign up here: darkroomballet.com

Listen to the episode

Listen on YouTube:

NFB’s “Scene Change” Episode 21: Accessible Ballet on YouTube (transcript available)

Listen on SoundCloud:

NFB’s “Scene Change” Episode 21: Accessible Ballet on SoundCloud

Visit the podcast on Anchor.fm to listen or link to other platforms:

NFB’s “Scene Change” on Anchor.fm

Read the Transcript:

Transcript: Dark Room Ballet on NFB “Scene Change” Podcast (June 2022) – opens in a new tab


Episode 21 notes:

0:41 – Introducing Krishna
3:10 – How it’s like to be a blind ballet instructor
16:08 – How to sign up and prices for other courses
31:48 – The difference between sighted, blind, and balanced
36:15 – Do students need to purchase ballet shoes before class
37:05 – What tape is used
39:49 – Krishna dancing while teaching
41:59 – Who taught Krishna
47:39 – Misconceptions for teachers to break
54:40 – Advice for anyone advocating for equality in the dance space
1:04:51 – Contact information
1:07:54 – Outro

Connect with the National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division!
Website: www.nfb-pad.org
Like on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PerformingArtsDivision
Follow on Twitter: @NFB_PAD

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News / Announcements

JUNE WORKSHOPS: Anatomy and Audio Description

Announcing two upcoming workshops open to all (priority given to blind and visually impaired students), no prior experience required.

Both workshops take place online via Zoom.

To register for one or both workshops, please write to info@darkroomballet.com as soon as possible to complete the intake process.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

4:00 PM to 5:30 PM (Eastern Time)

No Diagram Anatomy for Dancers in the Dark Room Presents Anatomy in Detail: The Gluteus Complex (Butt Class) 

(link to Movement Research class listing)

The first in a series of three highly detailed workshops analyzing specific anatomical areas in detail. In this workshop, we will use movement and conversation to not only cultivate scientific knowledge related to the gluteus complex (the butt!), but also initiate a higher degree of body awareness and neurological learning in this area. Evolutionary history and the marvels of human variation will also be addressed in this workshop. No prior knowledge of human anatomy, dance, or self-audio description are required to participate, but all students will come away with deep anatomical knowledge, reduced movement anxiety, and tools to start learning how to talk about movement in a visceral way. Yes, we’ll be laughing, too.

Part One: Superficial muscles

Part Two: Intermedial muscles

Part Three: Deep muscles

Part Four: Bone

Part Five: Nerves and patterns of motor neuron response


Saturday, June 18, 2022

4:00 PM to 5:30 PM (Eastern Time)

Voices from the Dark Room: The Multitude of Audio Descriptions and When to Touch Them 

(link to Movement Research class listing)

This self-audio description workshop gives students the framework for thinking of audio description as not a singular process with a singular best practice, but as multiple art forms with multiple purposes. Audio description has, for too long, been considered as an access tool that can be deployed at a moment’s notice with little forethought, but this sort of thinking creates environments of severe inequity. Classrooms, rehearsals, and performances where blind and visually impaired people are given inadequate connection to the art at their center are ableist places.

Part One: Audio Description in Technique Class

Part Two: Audio Description for Narrative Performance (story arc)

Part Three: Audio Description for Non-Linear Performance (emotional quality)

Part Four: Audio Description as Cooperative Creation and Collaboration (two voices)

Part Five: Audio Description for the Ensemble (a thousand voices)