LAURA SARAH DOWDALL
The image above shows eight people smiling at the end of a dance workshop with two guide dogs lying at their feet. This photo featured in the Irish Independent health supplement in 2017 with an article entitled 'Dancing in the Dark'.
ACCESS + AUDIO DESCRIPTION
EMBEDDING ACCESS INTO ARTS PRACTICE + PERFORMANCE
​Laura works collaboratively with artists, producers, cultural venues and festivals to create engaging audio description for audiences, interactive touch tours before performances and as part of gallery exhibitions, as well as audio access guides and resources for visitors to arts, heritage and cultural places of interest.
Laura is a dance artist specialising in inclusive, immersive and experimental performance integrating access as artistic form. Founder of Running Blind Dance, collaborating with blind and deafblind communities since 2015. This collaborative project has been developing and expanding the creative potential of audio-description to enrich and support access to dance practice and performance for visually impaired and blind people.
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Through her research and ongoing collaboration with the Deafblind community Laura has developed ways of integrating social haptic communication models and pro-haptic forms as both a practical non-verbal way of communicating and as a choreographic tool in the creation of professional production contexts.
Parallel to her ongoing research within the community, Laura completed a professional audio description training led by Arts Disability Ireland, Minds Eye Audio Description Training, The Lir Academy, supported by Dublin Dance Festival.
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She has been developing new ways of making the visual art of dance accessible to people with visual impairment through audio and haptic communication since 2015 and created the first inclusive dance performances for audiences with visual impairment in 2017 during her residency at RUA RED.
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​To learn more about Laura’s inclusive dance practice and trainings, visit- www.runningblind.ie
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Recent collaborative inclusive work, presentations and trainings include:
– Create Artist in the Community Awards (2023, 2024)
– Vision Global Conference (2024)
– Inclusive Dance tutor (UCC/Firkin Crane, 2023)
– Guest Artist MOVE ME! Festival (NL – 2023)
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Contact Laura to learn more: laura@runningblnd.ie