13 November 2024
Twenty years ago, with a young family, I was working part-time teaching GCSE Dance and running clubs in secondary schools. One of my remits was to deliver some workshops in the local Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) school across the road. I had no idea what I was going to do with these severely disabled children and how I was going to give them a meaningful and productive session, so I asked them for their help. I admitted that this was all new to me and suggested we worked together to create something and to tell me if I was being unrealistic or not realistic enough.
We worked on a piece in partnership with my non-disabled students and there was a defining moment for me: when we lifted a young man out of his wheelchair high up into the air, and the reaction from him and the carers was so profound that I realised that these children were not being given the same opportunities as their non-disabled peers.
“She’s been given the chance to be treated as an equal”
It hadn’t even crossed my mind that what we were doing was unusual and special, and from that moment I knew that when I started my own school I wanted it to be an inclusive environment, somewhere that dance and the wider performing arts could be enjoyed by everyone.
Two years later, that idea was born in an old Mushroom shed on a farm - hence the name Mushroom Theatre Company. It soon it became obvious that our building was not suitable in the long term and we realised that every theatre we performed in was unable to cater for our wheelchair users: doors were too narrow, there were lots of steps and no disabled toilets backstage. It seemed that disabled people were allowed to watch a show but there was no place for them on the actual stage!
"To be able to be pushed in potential and learn from her peers”.
We formed a charity, Equal People Performing Arts (registered charity number 1116649) and started fundraising for a building where everyone could enjoy the social and therapeutic benefits of the performing arts. After 10 years, we moved into our beautiful fully accessible studios and studio theatre in Rayleigh.
We started offering examination work a few years after we formed. We have entered many SEND students, but would really value an adaptable syllabus for our wheelchair users. I know the question you are probably asking is 'how does it work in practice?'. The answer we believe is in our ‘Buddy’ system. Older students ‘help’ the SEND children to access all the activities, making sure they understand, going over things with them, and helping them manage their behaviour.
"To learn determination, and with practice and hard work anything is achievable if you are given the opportunity to succeed”.
This has a two-fold effect: the disabled students receive peer attention and friendship which is often denied to them, and the non-disabled ‘Buddy’ receives non-judgmental friendship, which boosts their self-esteem in this target driven, over tested world they live in. It’s a win-win situation.
Not all of our students do or want to take examinations, or even perform in shows, but they all love music and movement and expressing themselves in this way. I’m not suggesting it’s easy to work in this way; it’s been difficult on occasions. People want to pigeonhole us as the school for ‘Special Needs kids’ when in fact we are just a performing arts school - for everyone.
We have just performed our annual show and out of the 117 cast members 34% had SEND. We believe in the power of being involved in dance and the performing arts to help people. Our standard of training is very high and some of our students have gone on to have careers in the industry. In other words, being an inclusive school has not ‘diluted’ the work; in reality, it’s enhanced it. Our students go off into the world with an attitude of acceptance and empathy and a sense of self-value born from being useful and accepted by others.
"When you hear less 'ah bless em' and more 'Wow!' you know something is truly magical. When you want real inclusivity and not a tick box exercise, there is only one place to look and that's the Mushroom Theatre Company".
Going forward, we hope to continue using the performing arts to enrich and enhance people’s lives. We are providers of Short Breaks for Disabled children and Holiday Activity Workshops for children on Benefits based free school meals. In our opinion, money should not be a barrier to being able to dance.
However, there is so much more that can be done to make the dance world accessible to everyone and it starts with grass roots organisations such as ours. If I had to give advice, and I don’t proclaim to have all the answers, I would say, don’t be afraid, be accepting; try not to think of these children as a potential problem by thinking of what they can’t achieve, but rather what they can; they are not a lower ability, just a different one; think outside the box; achieve technique if it's appropriate, but the main thing is to embrace the essence of dance, the reason we all started in the first place, and there you will find the magic and the joy.
Written by Penni Bubb, DDI, AISTD, founder and director of Mushroom Theatre Company
