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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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New inventory at Dark Room Adorned on Etsy!

Don’t sleep on the new inventory at Dark Room Adorned on Etsy!

Over a dozen new designs — here are just 2, WATERWAYS and TAJABONE

⚡️ Use code WEARME for 10% off! ⚡️

All bracelets are made in a wrap style that is adaptable and adjustable for many sizes and uses, and each is created using ethically sourced supplies from the United States, Czech Republic, Austria, and Mexico. 💎

Every bracelet is named after music used in Dark Room Ballet classes for blind and visually impaired adults, many of which are songs requested by students.

Proceeds from every sale at Dark Room Adorned benefit the Telephone Dance and Audio Description Film project, so that editors, composers, ASL interpreters and consultants can be paid.

Descriptions with each image.

Shop at Dark Room Adorned on Etsy today!

Inspired by Ludovico Einaudi’s beautiful, delicately atmospheric song, Waterways. This powerfully beautiful bracelet is made with a cyan blue vegan leather strap, cyan nylon thread, beautiful rare and special cyan blue apatite gemstones cut in a unique faceted cube shape, cyan blue Baroque freshwater pearls, matte finish Czech glass beads, and two shapes of silver-filled beads: round and filigree, and a silver-tone pewter oval button with swirl detailing. At four wraps around the wrist, it fits up to a six and three quarter inch wrist. This bracelet can also be worn loose at three wraps, unwrapped as a necklace, or double-wrapped as an anklet.

All purchases from Dark Room Adorned support Krishna, the blind ballet teacher who made this bracelet, and The Telephone Film, a screen dance project with choreographer Heather Shaw meant to promote the field of audio description for dance. The song Waterways was used in Dark Room Ballet class on May 23, 2022; this song was introduced to Krishna by her disabled dance mentor, Sasha!



Image described in caption
Inspired by the impossibly talented Senegalese musician, Ismael Lo, and his heartfelt ode to childhood holidays, Tajabone. This especially beautiful bracelet is made with an olive green vegan leather strap, olive green nylon thread, beautiful natural green garnet and peridot gemstones, olive green freshwater pearls, flickering crystal rondelles, and two shapes of gold-filled beads: round and hexagonal, and a gold-tone brass oval button with pinpoint detailing. At four wraps around the wrist, it fits up to a seven and a half inch wrist. This bracelet can also be worn loose at three wraps, unwrapped as a necklace, or double-wrapped as an anklet.

All purchases from Dark Room Adorned support Krishna, the blind ballet teacher who made this bracelet, and The Telephone Film, a screen dance project with choreographer Heather Shaw meant to promote the field of audio description for dance. The song Tajabone was used in Dark Room Ballet class on June 6, 2022; this song was introduced to Krishna by her disabled dance mentor, Sasha!

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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. 

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.

Telephone Film is in the post-production stage, and is just $600 away from being able to meet a minimum goal to pay for editing and accessibility services.

You can help!

Interested in making a one-time donation? You can do so on Ko-Fi.

Interested in Dark Room Ballet Merchandise in support of Telephone? Limited quantity tote bags* are available at the following links: Air Between My Vertebrae, Fingers Awake and Alive, and Heels like Magnets.

Watch the Telephone film trailer (with credits and expanded description)… and then, do the Telephone Rock!

(The Telephone Rock is a Sesame Street video from 1977 with Muppets singing in and around a telephone booth… remember those? The lyrics are available here.)

Thanks, as always, for supporting the missions of Dark Room Ballet and the Telephone Film!