First Light

Choreographers – Lucy Bennett, Nadenh Poan, Stopgap Dance Company, UK

Creative Facilitators – Iakob Gogotishvili, Davit Khorbaladze, Eka Tsilosani, InForm, Georgia

Music – Nadenh Poan

Film Directors – Patrick Wendt, Kote Kalandadze

Creative producer – Maka Chkhaidze

Participants – Mariam Liparteliani, Ekaterine Tsilosani, Eka Darsavelidze, Ana Nikolashvili, Temur Arabidze, Ketevan Giorgadze, Daria Diubovik, Nino Maghradze, Nini Machavariani, Shorena Vashadze, Tamar Lebanidze, Keti Zazanashvili, Anano Lartsuliani, Mikheil Kurdadze, Mariam Khavelashvili, Ana Khavelashvili, Liza Tezneva, Tamar Naveriani, Grigori Muzurov, Toma Omanadze, Nina Lebesheva, Marita Gogichaishvili

Photos by Giorgi Shengelia

 About Project

What began as a first encounter has grown into a collective creative sharing. This is what happens when Disabled and non-disabled artists — different bodies, experiences and perspectives — come together to move, explore, connect and create new possibilities.

You are invited to experience the short performance sharing “First Light” — the outcome of a four-day inclusive dance workshop created through a collaboration between UK-based Stopgap Dance Company and Georgia-based InForm – Platform for Inclusive Minds. Here, people with diverse experiences came together. Many of them met for the first time, many rediscovered one another, and some stepping onto a stage for the very first time.

The process of creating “First Light” became an exploration of what an open and inclusive society can look like. This journey is captured in the short documentary film “Bodies in Motion,” presented for the first time at the event and followed by a conversation on how togetherness, diversity and inclusion, the values we practice in creative spaces, can extend beyond the stage and become part of our everyday lives.

The project is the outcome of the collaboration between InForm – Platform for Inclusive Minds, Georgia and Stopgap Dance Company, UK.

This project is supported by the British Council’s Connections Through Culture Programme and Supporting Act Foundation.