DisAbility on Stage was a project launched by the Institute for the Performing Arts and Film of the Zürcher Hochschule der Kunste (ZHdK) and funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
It was the first comprehensive survey of theatre and dance practices conceived, directed and/or performed by disabled artists in the different language regions of Switzerland.
The Accademia Dimitri participated with a sub-project, Disabled Bodies in Discourse, dedicated to the study of what these scenic practices have in common with those of physical theatre. With the aim of not limiting itself to pure academic research, but to establish a constant dialogue between theory and practice, also contributing to the development of physical theatre pedagogy, Disabled Bodies in Discourse culminated in a workshop that in November 2016 featured Master students from the Academy of Verscio and disabled actors, under the guidance of Emanuel Rosenberg of Teatro Danzabile. The results of the theatre workshop were presented in June 2017 as part of the festivals of Bern, Lugano, Geneva and Basel associated with the IntegrART project.
While the more specifically scientific results of the project, curated by Sara Bocchini and Demis Quadri, were disseminated through a hybrid multimedia publication that tried to explore various modes of expression in terms of accessibility (easy language and academic language, texts in German and Italian, videos with subtitles and audio descriptions, photographs, etc.), i.e. taking into account the different possibilities of accessing materials for people with different forms of disability (physical or mental), language skills and cognitive functioning. The site was designed and realised by Maya Hässig and Benjamin Brandt under the guidance of the team of researchers of DisAbility on Stage: Sara Bocchini (ATD), Sarah Marinucci (ZHdK), Demis Quadri (ATD), Anton Rey (ZHdK) and Yvonne Schmidt (ZHdK). This new publication updates, without overlapping, the previous blog dedicated to the project.