Raquel Meseguer Zafe, Sho Shibata, Tarik Elmoutawakil, Xan Dye Panel Discussion: ReWorking Rhythms UK

Credit Paul Samuel White

Raquel Mesgeuer-Zafe’s work straddles theatre, dance, installation, performative conversations and photo-documentary. She identifies as dis-abled, and works with rest and horizontality as creative impulses. Raquel founded Unchartered Collective in 2016 to create theatrical encounters that explore the lived experience of an invisible disability like chronic pain. Her work is supported by MAYK, Unlimited and Pervasive Media Studios.

Sho was actively involved in the performing arts in Japan as a child, performing in various children’s television and film productions as well as on stage with Les Miserables directed by John Caird and Waiting for Godot directed by the late Yukio Ninagawa.

He then moved to UK in 1995 and graduated from London School of Economics and Political Science in 2005 with a degree in Philosophy and Social Psychology. His studies gave him a theoretical understanding of how discrimination and segregation come about in social settings. After graduation, Sho worked at Arts Council England, South East and joined Stopgap Dance Company in 2008 to manage touring, outreach and dance development projects.

Sho began producing Stopgap’s outdoor productions in 2009 with Tracking and built its profile in the outdoor arts sector. His endeavours culminated with a Cultural Olympiad tour of SPUN Productions in 2012. After successfully completing SPUN, Sho joined the company’s senior management as the company’s full-time producer, then progressed to Executive Producer.

Sho is a trustee of ISTD, Play to the Crowd (umbrella organisation for Winchester Theatre Royal, Hat Fair and Playmakers) and a member of the South East Area Council for Arts Council England.

Tarik Elmoutawakil is an Artist, programmer, and Founder/Co-Artistic Director at Marlborough Productions. Creator of ‘Brownton Abbey,’ an Afro-Futures Performance Party celebrating disabled QTIPOC, and Radical Rhizomes, a creative community intervention based in Brighton.

Tarik’s work involves themes of intersectional accessibility and radical inclusion and radical exclusion. He is connected to global disabled QTIPOC activists, and is invested in reshaping access and leadership. A dynamic public speaker, Tarik advocates for joyous existences for marginalized queers.

Credit Alice Underwood

Xan is developing ways of doing, sharing and facilitating dance through identifying and dismantling the access barriers they experience in dance spaces, systems and cultures. They explore movement that emerges from a felt sense of need, being guided by the senses and curious about what’s happening already. Through this, Xan explores creative ways to be in dialogue with ourselves, our environments and others.

At the centre of Xan’s practice is the performance research project STIMMING, which explores rhythmic, repetitive sensory seeking and self-regulating movement patterns known as stimming movements, exploring the creative potential of the space between stimming and dancing. This research has been awarded national lottery project grant funding by Arts Council England, and has been supported through residencies and commissions from at The Place, Wellcome Collection, SHAPE ARTS and Siobhan Davies Studios.