Our work produces insights linking legal empowerment with participatory performance to reduce poverty and social exclusion for persons with disabilities. The evidence serves to inform policymakers, practitioners, and donors on how to scale up such interventions in Sri Lanka and similar post-conflict countries.
Project: ‘Performing Empowerment’ (2016-2018)
Rights Moves: An Exercise Set for Transformative Rights Education was developed during ‘Performing Empowerment’. It provides a series of cards that can be used by dance and rights practitioners to explore the relationships between each area. It was the first attempt by the team to share these connections. It is separate from the Performing Informing Rights Training Resource.
Lars Waldorf, Vipavinee Artpradid and Hetty Blades, ‘Rights Moves: An Exercise Set for Transformative Human Rights Education’ (University of Essex 2018). DOI: 10.5526/09s7-8j09
Videos
Film 0: Performing Empowerment Overview
Film 2: Disability and Disability Rights in Sri Lanka
Film 3: Combining Dance and Human Rights
Film 4: Dance and Rights Workshops
Project: ‘Performing Inclusion’ (2019)
Film 2: Methodology and Preliminary Findings
Articles and Chapters
Blades, H. (2021). Dancing Right(s): Dance, Disability and Legal Empowerment in Post-War Sri Lanka. Dance Research, 39(1), 72-88. https://doi.org/10.3366/drs.2020.0319
Blades, H. (2019). Dance, Disability and Performance in North and East Sri Lanka: Evaluating Audience Responses. In C. Vendramin, H. Blades, K. Marsh, & S. Whatley (Eds.), Exchanging, Moving, Translating: Thoughts on Dance and Disability (pp. 330-346). Centre for Dance Research.
Performing/Informing Rights 