Inclusive dance, and the question of who can reach nature.
Nature in Motion is a collaboration between Kaaos Company (Finland) and MeetShareDance (Spain), in which dancers with and without disabilities explore our relationship with nature through movement. We are all encouraged to spend time outdoors, yet for many people with disabilities nature remains out of reach: hard to get to by public transport, and often inaccessible once there. Working in Helsinki and Madrid, the project used inclusive dance and film to make this gap visible and to create real experiences of nature for people who are too often left out. The result is two short documentaries, made in fully accessible versions, and a shared body of creative work, showing what becomes possible when access exists, and what is lost when it doesn’t. The project was co-funded by the European Union.
To inquire about our performances email info@kaaoscompany.fi
Scores and reflections
At the very start of Nature in Motion, before the two groups had ever met, participants in Finland and Spain were sent a series of “scores”: simple guided invitations to move, listen, and pay attention to nature on their own, wherever they were. Some were audio scores, some were video. There was no right way to respond. People answered through movement, writing, drawing, and photography, whatever felt true to their own encounter with the natural world.
This site gathers those scores together with the responses they inspired: poetry, reflections, and images made by the participants themselves. It is an open, growing record of many different relationships with nature, and an invitation to you, too. You are welcome to explore the reflections, try the scores yourself, and see where they take you.
Read more on EPALE
We shared our thinking on EPALE, the European Commission’s platform for adult learning, at two points in the project. The first article was written at the beginning, setting out our intentions; the second at the end, reflecting on what we had learned and experienced together.
- Nature in Motion — written at the start of the project, introducing its aims and the questions it set out to explore around inclusive dance and access to nature.
- Nature in Motion: moving through landscapes — written at the close of the project, reflecting on the shared, embodied experiences of the participants and what it meant to move through nature together across diverse bodies and minds.
