Without the shorthand of sight, there are so many details to communicate. And the way you choose to communicate those details can dramatically alter their interpretation. That idea is a jumping-off point for Devon Healey’s new show Rainbow on Mars, a co-production from the National Ballet of Canada and Toronto-based theatre company Outside the March.
Playwright and performer Devon Healey, left, with choreographer Robert Binet, right, during rehearsal on July 18. Rainbow on Mars is a co-production from The National Ballet of Canada and Toronto-based theatre company Outside the March.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
The play – an Alice in Wonderland-esque narrative exploring Healey’s vision loss, with the playwright doubling as the lead performer – is an attempt to communicate ballet to a blind and low-vision audience, while offering sighted patrons a new perspective on dance.
“There is a myth that blindness is the opposite of seeing. It’s this presumption that blindness is a complete absence of vision rather than a way of knowing the world,” said Healey, who is also an assistant professor of disability studies at the University of Toronto. “I really wanted to go on an adventure into blindness. And in that adventure, I started to build a connection with dance.”
The spark of connection was fostered by Outside the March’s artistic director, Mitchell Cushman. During an early workshop, Cushman paired the playwright with choreographer Robert Binet, artistic director of Fall for Dance North and a former choreographic associate of the National Ballet. Together, they focused on a process Healey calls “immersive descriptive audio.”
Usually accessibility needs are only considered once a play, movie or television show is already finished. For example, “descriptive audio” is an audio narration track – added to a program in postproduction – that provides barebones information about the visual elements. While useful for blind and low-vision audiences, the effect often makes access feel like an afterthought.
In contrast, Healy notes that with immersive descriptive audio, “blindness is built into the artistic process.” As a core element of Rainbow on Mars, the creative team considered how the show would be experienced by audiences with sight loss (the Royal National Institute for the Blind notes that 93 per cent of legally blind people have some level of vision), working to emphasize the mood and feeling of its dance, stage directions and other visual elements, rather than rendering a literal interpretation of events. More poetry than math.
It’s something that’s helped reframe and expand how Binet and the 12 dancers in the show – a group of international performers, training as part of the National Ballet’s apprentice program – think about their work. Both philosophically and practically.
During the rehearsal process, Healey utilized feedback from the dancers and actors to update the show’s script and production elements. Descriptions of the movement evolved based on how each performer felt while performing them. That growth and co-operation was integral to creating a piece that moves beyond the visual.
In addition to the text and audio portions of the show, the creators also began thinking about other non-visual production elements, such as the room’s air propulsion and the texture of materials used for the show’s costumes.
From left to right, performers Sofía Rodríguez, Danté Prince, Amy Keating and Devon Healey in a production still from Rainbow on Mars live in Toronto.Bruce Zinger/Supplied
“Suddenly it wasn’t just the surface of what it looked like, but how it felt. What the dancers were thinking, how their breath changed, what muscles they were tightening. Certain colours, images or sounds that came to them from a movement became part of the descriptive text,” said Healey. “It wasn’t just filling people in on what was happening. It was an offer to come into this world of blindness together.”
Raised fingers reaching for someone’s back are described as “magnet hands” pulling into a twisted spine. That twisted spine is an “accordion pulse.” The push and pull of the text with the movement results in a sort of synesthesia, a sensory crossover more than the sum of its parts.
A dance show for the low vision and blind isn’t an obvious choice. But the team behind Rainbow on Mars hopes the intrigue of the premise is enough to bring in audience members both from the blind community and outside of it. The show points to a bigger idea that creating accessible experiences doesn’t just benefit people with disabilities. It can create avenues for a new – and potentially deeper – appreciation of the art for everyone involved.
Dancer Luiz Anselmo noted that immersive descriptive audio offers audiences meaning and context for the movements they’re witnessing on stage, something that can sometimes be a challenge to understand for those without a dance background regardless of their vision.
Watch and listen to a clip from Rainbow on Mars, running Aug. 9-20 at Ada Slaight Hall in Toronto. Videography by Paul McNulty.
Healey hopes Rainbow on Mars can be a jumping-off point for immersive descriptive audio in other theatre productions and different mediums. Imagine a painting with tactile elements and a vivid auditory interpretation of its visuals. Or a night at the symphony where the musicians’ physicality lives alongside the melody. There is a world of possibility to discover.
“Immersive descriptive audio is not just a description of a performance,” said Healey. “It’s a performance itself.”
Vanessa Smythe, left, rehearses with dancers. Putting on a dance show for the low vision and blind may not be an obvious choice, but the people behind Rainbow on Mars hopes the intrigue of the premise is enough to fill seats.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
