Connect2Abilities: Staging Virtual Intercultural Collaboration during COVID-19

ABSTRACT

A global pandemic presents challenges and opportunities especially for artists with disabilities. Connect2Abilities is an inclusive intercultural collaboration project between an inclusive dance company, Restless Dance Theatre in Australia, and SNU MUSIC in Korea. This project employed the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari's rhizomatic thinking with a belief that when creating “people-to-people” connections, different individuals' particular abilities interconnect, multiply, and grow as networks with no explicit center. Connect2Abilities was originally initiated as a face-to-face performing arts intercultural collaboration, yet due to the global pandemic, COVID-19, it had to pivot to virtual collaboration. Dialogue for Six Strings, a digital performing arts piece created for an online global public viewing, was developed by artists of all abilities, multiplying their separate creativities. A critical outcome from the experience underscores that the unforeseen pandemic motivated a technology-enabled collaboration based on shared skills and social engagement between heterogeneous groups, extending the borders of the aesthetic sphere. This project is evidence that opportunities outweigh challenges in a time of crisis, especially in terms of audience outreach, boosting morale, and creating positive social impact through the arts. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Amanda Cachia;individual chapters, the contributors.