Unlimited: Making the Right Moves was an arts and disability programme arising from a common-sense idea that there are no limits for those who dream big, regardless of background or physical ability.
This was our flagship programme that included workshops, educational forums and live performances. Since its inception in 2015 as a British Council programme, it had a significant effect on the arts and theatre scene and on the lives of the disabled people living in the region.
Impact of Unlimited programme in the South Caucasus and Ukraine
- Increased participation of disabled people in the creative economy and policymaking.
- Disabled artists developed skills for the creation and presentation of artistic work in the four countries that is of quality and inclusive.
- Sustainable networks built and new partnerships and collaborations developed with UK disability artists and companies for sector development and internationalisation.
- Social policy and legislation influenced, and public perceptions towards greater understanding and sensitivity to the creative potential of disabled people improved.
- Awareness of the role of art in social development through exposure to the UK experience in disability led art has increased.
The programme’s accomplishments in the few years since its start were hugely encouraging, with the potential for encouraging real reform and for the development of Georgian society with unlimited room for growth.
We are very proud of some of the great achievements of the programme:
- It became an inspiration for the creation of the Tbilisi Inclusive Dance company;
- Georgian dancers participated in the creative process of the Argonauts, the joint international dance performance created by Ben Duke, a choreographer from the UK. The performance was successfully premiered at #UKGeorgia2019
- The Georgian Parliament hosted the International Unlimited Forum for the first time in its history. Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive with 100% of 39 respondents indicating that their understanding of disability inclusive arts had developed positively and that they were more likely to explore disability arts and culture as a result of attending the forum.
What is the capacity of a human soul? How would you measure it? Consider the case of Yaroslav Grybalsky, Ukrainian disabled civil activist and an advisor to the Mayor of Lviv. Trained in his youth as an orchestral conductor, a spinal injury put an end to his dream of being a musician. He lived, he knew, in a place where the disabled were excluded from the arts and from many other aspects of society. But the question haunted him: why did it have to be that way?
Candoco, a London-based dance company for disabled and non-disabled performers, has been asking the same thing since 1991. It has produced the best possible answer to Yaroslav’s question: there is absolutely no reason for the disabled people to be excluded from taking part in the arts. No good reason, anyway.
