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The process
Frequent in film and theatre, audio description consists in describing the visual elements of a work for a blind and partially sighted audience in order to facilitate their understanding. Dance requires a slightly different process, with the knowledge and development of specific tools.
At Danse-Cité, we have chosen to offer a cultural experience in which the human being is at the heart of everything we do. The event, which includes a performance with live audio description, is built to honour the realities and needs of blind and partially sighted spectators.
So we're offering a four-stage experience:
Reception
An evening in AD begins with the reception of the blind and partially sighted public, 90 minutes before the official opening of the hall, by a team of volunteers who have undergone guide training and by the teams of Danse-Cité and the venues. The spectators concerned use adapted transport, the metro or are accompanied. The logistics of the reception are organized beforehand and are personalized to the reality of each person.
Two technicians are on hand to ensure that the application works properly on each spectator's phone and to provide them with the necessary equipment, if necessary (phone, headphones). Once everything is set up and tested, the tactile visit begins.
Presentation workshop - Tactile visit
The tactile visit takes place on the stage and is led by the audio describers. It includes a presentation of the evening's work, reference words to facilitate understanding of the narrative, a texture reception to familiarize the audience with the scenic elements and the creative universe and a short movement workshop inspired by the gestural elements of the work. When possible, the dancers and the choreographer will also introduce themselves. The voices of the dancers contribute to the development of mental images for the blind and partially sighted audience. After the tactile visit, the audience sits down and the performance begins.
Live audio description
The audio description is done live. Each moment of the work is described in great detail. The narrative text is written beforehand, but the audio describers adjust it on the spot, following the temporalities of the dance that evening and the improvised moments of the performers. The vocabulary is carefully chosen in order to arouse the emotions and stimulate the imagination of the spectators concerned.
Talkback
After the performance, a discussion is led by the audio describers between the blind and partially sighted spectators and the artists, in order to deepen their understanding of the work. The discussion includes a question and answer period and exchanges on the reception of the event.
Origin
During the fall 2019, Danse-Cité has set up a pilot project to introduce live audio description of choreographic performances for blind and partially sighted people in Quebec.
2019 - 2021
After a number of consultations with organizations dedicated to blind and partially sighted people (Regroupement des Aveugles et Amblyopes du Québec, CNIB Foundation and Fondation des Aveugles du Québec), organizations that put audio description of theatrical works into practice, and in collaboration with Valérie Castan, a French specialist in audio description of choreographic performances since 2012, we were able to draw up our action plan.
Initial funding from the Conseil des arts de Montréal under the Pratiques Inclusives component enabled us to train audio describers specializing in the description of choreographic works and to put on our first show with live audio description. It is directed by Valérie Castan and welcomes around ten participants who are learning the tools of a new profession.
On October 2021, 23, the first dance show has been offered with live audio description: L'effritement des parades, by Alan Lake Factori(e) presented by Danse Danse.
2021 - 2022
A second grant was awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts under the Innovation and Sector Development: Supporting Artistic Practice component. The support will extend the service to a full year and accompany the implementation of live audio description among several Montreal’s dance presenter partners. The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec is also supporting the project and encouraging the repetition of events. Danse Danse, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), FTA - Festival TransAmériques, La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, Danse-Cité, Tangente, Maison des arts de Laval, welcome the service.
In 2022, Danse-Cité was nominated as a finalist for the Grand Prix by the Conseil des Arts de Montréal, which hailed: "At a time of recovery and in the midst of its redefinition, Danse-Cité has had a brilliantly relevant year, multiplying its impact on its community, giving pride of place to research and to the abundance of contemporary creation... while leaving no one behind".
2023 - 2024
Financial support from the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec has enabled us to acquire the full technical and technological equipment.
On 3 December 2023, during a family performance of GLITCH, Danse-Cité, in collaboration with the company Bouge de là and the Maison des arts de Laval, presented the first audio description for young audiences (aged 9 and over) living with partial or total blindness.
Since then, activities have continued.
We would like to warmly thank the financial supports: Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, Conseil des Arts du Canada, Conseil des Arts de Montréal, Caisse de la Culture - Desjardins, Fondation Cypihot-Ouellette, Patrimoine Canada et Ministère de la Culture et des Communications.
Audiodescriber
During the ideation and conceptualisation phase of this new project for the French-speaking territory of Quebec, we identified the crying lack of resources equipped in the field of audio description.
Developing writing adapted to choreographic works and intended to be heard by people with blindness raises many editorial issues (lexical, etc.) and requires the development of a specific methodology. Indeed, in dance, since many improvised moments or alterations in duration make it difficult to foresee a description other than live, the pre-written text is a reference that must be integrated beforehand to facilitate oralisation. The latter, performed live, is therefore the result of observation, meetings with the artistic teams, analysis of the bodies in movement and of the scenic elements, writing and rehearsal time.
During the performance, the audio-describer is placed in a closed control room or in a quiet space, equipped with a screen that broadcasts the piece live, as well as a mixing desk, a microphone and headphones.
The reality of an audio description mandate for a choreographic performance
Audiodescription is a practice that is constantly evolving, adapting to the aesthetic project to be described. It is a lengthy writing process (allow a month in advance for a one-hour play) comprising several phases:
Meeting with creative teams;
Collection of literature on the play (company file, communication texts, press, etc.);
Get the video material you need to write;
Viewing and analyzing the work if it has already been created, or following rehearsals if it is in the process of being created;
Writing text and speaking practice;
Submission of the text to a blind person;
Preparation of a pre-show workshop and tactile tour;
Rehearsals the days before the audio description;
Finalization and adaptation of the text;
D-Day: Pre-show workshop + Live audio description + Post-show meeting with artists and audience members
Attendance and participation at planning, coordination and post-mortem meetings.
An audio description mandate requires a flexible working schedule.
'It's an exciting, generous and rigorous all-round activity, requiring the autonomy of solo writing as much as the ease of oral performance or the communication skills needed for teamwork' — Enora Rivière