Alisha to Austria, Dance for all

I would like to introduce myself, Alisha Mclennan Marler, I am a dancer who also happens to have a disability from Devonport, Auckland. My goal is to continue to work with New Zealand’s disability and dance communities to ensure that dance is accessible to everyone.

In order to support my mission I need your support to get to the DanceAbility Teacher Certification in Vienna in July 2018. On my return to New Zealand I will have more in depth knowledge and skills to work with Touch Compass to provide inclusive dance classes and workshops for all.

For inclusive dance to be possible at a professional level there needs to be classes that youth of all abilities can fully participate in. For these class to exist there needs to be teachers with the knowledge and skills to facilitate them. By attending the DanceAbility training and working with Touch Compass to develop our Education Programme, this is possible.

I have danced with Touch Compass since 2002, as well as being a dancer I am a support tutor for the Youth and Secondary Schools Programme. I have been recognized for my work as a dancer with a disability, receiving a North Harbour AIMES award to study aerial dance in the UK in 2011 and being awarded the TV One Attitude Artistic Achievement Award in 2013.

Touch Compass is New Zealand’s only professional inclusive dance company, forming the point where disabled and non-disabled dancers meet, on the floor and in mid-air. Touch Compass has been challenging perceptions about what dance is and who can do it since 1997. Touch Compass not only envisages a seamless society, we actively seek it out.

DanceAbility’s mission is to dissolve barriers and connect people with and without disabilities through dance and movement. Teachers trained in DanceAbility have contributed to the development and expansion of inclusive dance communities around the world. The Teacher Certification course consists of four weeks of full-time study, which includes how to adapt teaching style to any given participants, how to work with various size of groups, and how to present performance.

I believe having more visible inclusive dance, professionally and at grassroots, we can change the wider societies perceptions of disability.

2018 provides me with the perfect opportunity to attend DanceAbility as Georgie Goater, a longtime Touch Compass colleague from NZ now based in Helsinki who will meet me in Vienna. Georgie will be there to support as during dance intensives I often develop fatigue and cannot manage my day-to-day tasks such as meal preparation and washing, outside of my home environment on top of the workload. This support will allow me to focus solely on the training.

The funds raised here are to support a funding application that I will be submitting to Creative New Zealand, I will find out if my application is successful on the 16th of March. If I do not receive CNZ funding and unable to find adequate funds, the funds from this page will be donated to Touch Compass' Youth Programme.

DanceAbility - https://www.impulstanz.com/media/download/DanceAbilityTeacherCertification2018_about_en.pdf