Part One: Foundation for All

Part Overview

The purpose of this first block is to introduce you to a number of the main themes that run through the course. 

These include an insight into the daily challenges faced by disabled dance artists; an investigation into the meaning of virtuosity in dance and how we might move beyond established thinking; a general introduction to law and to copyright and human rights; and an assessment of the current environment for public funding in the arts in general and disability in particular.

Both dance artists and venue programmers should complete this block before moving on to Part Two for dance artists and Part Three for venue programmers.

Throughout the toolkit you will be encouraged to reflect on your experiences.

We invite you to contribute your thoughts to our project blog, which can be found via the following link:

External links will open in a new web browser tab.


Please send blog posts to invisiblediff@gmail.com

We also encourage you to Tweet about your experiences using the hashtag #resinctoolkit.

Before you start, we would like you to look at the following three sources:

    1. Waelde C, Whatley S, Pavis M (2014). Let’s Dance! But who owns it? European Intellectual Property Review, 36, 217-222
    2. Conversation between Kate Marsh, Welly O’Brien and Charlotte Darbyshire about collaboration and ownership (right)
    3. The protest and power of disability activism: ‘It’s not as sexy as gay rights or climate change’ [The Guardian]
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These three sources set the scene for and highlight the main themes that run through this course:

  • The reduction in public funding and the need to replace that with something else
  • The notions of authorship and ownership in dance, and how the law might differ from widely held perceptions
  • The need to think clearly about copyright law and dance at the outset of a project to avoid problems over control in the future
  • That the language of rights is important and can be highly effective in the cultural sector