Topic
Laboratory for Creative Audio Description
Community of Reception by Fia/Sophia Neises and Zwoizy Mears-Clarke
Programme 2026
It’s that time again: The Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for Dance opens its doors. And as always, we invite you to join us. This lab is a space for artistic practice, collective learning and collaboration that centres the perspectives of blind and visually impaired people.
At tanzhaus nrw, a Community of Reception, alongside researchers and artists, will continue to develop dance shaped by a plethora of perception styles under the direction of Sophia/Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke. The core focus of the community is audio description as an artistic practice that brings together movement, language and sound, to open up new ways of experiencing dance.
From June to October 2026, the Laboratory will focus on artistic production and collective experimentation. Dance artists with a range of sight levels will work together in teams to develop short pieces. The multitude of perception styles becomes the starting point for artistic processes. Audio description is a central part of these processes, shaping how movement emerges, is described, and is experienced. The resulting short pieces will be presented at tanzhaus nrw and invite blind, visually impaired, and sighted audiences to encounter dance in new ways.
The second focus lies in connecting dance with club culture. Through the interplay of audio description, music, and MCing, we experiment and develop new formats that shift the dancefloor to a shared space that decentres sight. Central questions include: how collective experience, rhythm, and a sense of proximity can be created and what aesthetic strategies emerge from this? How do we connect within a space? How can a shared rhythm be felt?
The Laboratory for Creative Audio Description sees itself as a space for exchange, learning and artistic development. It centres the perspectives of blind and visually impaired people within dance and works to dismantle barriers – artistically and structurally. In doing so, it fosters new forms of collaboration and new ways of accessing dance.
New in 2026
We bring together a workshop, artistic labs and productions, and dance parties:
– Development of short dance pieces in small teams and their public presentation
– Lab bringing together creative audio description and MCing
– A dancefloor that is welcoming and decenters sightedness
Our Wish
Dance as spaces where people with a variety of perception styles can come together to imagine, create, and collaborate.
How We Work Together
We shape the space collectively. This means:
– You decide what you need and can share this with the group at any time
– Asking questions, experimenting and being not yet convinced are explicitly welcome
– Support is offered when asked for, not assumed
– We use language that is mindful of discrimination and the dynamics of privilege
– We understand feedback as part of a shared learning process
– Mistakes can happen; what matters is being accountable in those moments
Whether you have taken part before or are joining for the first time, we look forward to welcoming you.
SAVE THE DATE – first Workshop: 20 & 21 June 2026
We welcome blind and visually impaired participants; dance artists, dancers, performers, audio describers, and dramaturgs with any sight level; and anyone interested in aesthetics of access and collaborative processes.
What To Expect
– Collective exploration of dance and audio description as an artistic practice
– Exchange between people with different perception styles
– Time to develop your own ways of working with movement, descriptive language and sound
– A space to meet, connect and collaborate
Intro-Workshop Creative Audio Description for Dance
As part of the network Making a Difference (MAD) we are offering a residency at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf for one disabled, Deaf or chronically ill artist from Berlin or North Rhine-Westphalia.
Fia/Sophia Neises is a white, queer, visually impaired performer, dramaturge, theatre educator and disabled people’s rights activist She works inclusively as a choreographer and dancer for stage pieces and, time and again, as a dramaturge for visually impaired and blind audiences. Zwoisy Mears-Clarke views themself as a choreographer of encounters. This reflects both Zwoisy's approach as a Black queer choreographer and as a community organiser, as well. Since the beginning of Zwoisy's career, Zwoisy has been developing dance pieces for an audience of visually impaired, blind as well as sighted people, employing an intersectional approach. Fia/Sophia Neises & Zwoisy Mears-Clarke have been working together since 2016. They continuously share their knowledge and experience with dance artists and members of the visually impaired and blind community and continue their research jointly together with them.
Regular contributors to the laboratory include: Agnes Kappaun, Alexander Panevin, Andrea Eberl, Britta Van Hall, Camilla Moitroux-Fusshoeller, Fabian Lilian Korner, Melanie Hambrecht, Nismiye Önder, Sabine Kuxdorf, Traugott Sobiech, Yasha Müller.
Audio contributions
Research Area Audio Description – Creating A Dance Experience For Everyone.
An audio contribution about the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description at tanzhaus nrw, a community of reception by Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke
Amy Zayed, cultural journalist from Cologne, retraced the steps of the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description for dance, launched in April 2023, meeting the two directors Fia Neises and Zwoisy Mears-Clarke. What is the research being conducted in this laboratory? What are the results and findings? And what is happening next? Apart from the project’s two heads, Amy Zayed will also talk to participants Sabine Kuxdorf and Thaddäus Maria Jungmann. The two dance creators from North Rhine-Westphalia met in the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description and are now developing audio descriptions for dance performances at tanzhaus nrw in tandem together.
By & featuring: Cultural journalist: Amy Zayed; Sound Design: Katrin Meier; Speakers: Thaddäus Maria Jungmann, Sabine Kuxdorf, Zwoisy Mears-Clarke, Sophia/Fia Neises
Audio Contribution "Research Field Audio Description – Creating A Dance Experience For Everyone"
Laboratory for Audio Description
Audio contribution "Understanding Blindly – the PRO RETINA-Podcast"
#65 Close your eyes – the magic of dance!
Contact: Lucie Ortmann, dramaturgie@tanzhaus-nrw.de
Audio Descriptions at tanzhaus nrw
Audio descriptions have been developed at tanzhaus nrw, starting in December 2024, by a tandem formed as part of the Laboratory for Creative Audio Description. The tandem of Sabine Kuxdorf and Thaddäus Maria Jungmann explores the forms of expression in as well as the facets and limits of audio description. In the spirit of the aesthetics of access, the two descriptors – instead of adding the audio description afterwards – enter the exchange with the choreographers already during the rehearsal process. Their style of artistic audio description reaches beyond the classic, neutral translation of visual information, encompassing experiments with language and enables blind and visually impaired audiences to access the respective pieces both sensually and atmospherically, via their headphones.
Sabine Kuxdorf
Sabine Kuxdorf is a social worker based in Cologne. She gathered her first dance experience as part of the piece Collisions Interdites by DIPHTONG KOLLEKTIV, in which she performed in 2022. She is blind and works as a performer and consultant in the field of access dramaturgy and participation in theatre and dance productions in North Rhine-Westphalia, including with Khadidiatou Bangoura and the Sticky Fragments Physical
Thaddäus Maria Jungmann
Thaddäus Maria Jungmann lives as a freelance performer in Cologne. In her own artistic practice, she deals with the agency of objects in relation to her own queer body. As a journalist, she came upon audio description through writing about dance. She is currently conducting research in the field of artistic audio description in the Master's programme in Dance Studies at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
Our upcoming events with creative audio description
Thu 30.04.2026
On Thursday, April 30, Elsa Artmann / SANFTE ARBEIT presents A Change is as Good as a Rest. The peformance starts at 8pm and lasts 70 minutes.
Click HERE to go to the event page.
The Laboratory for Creative Audio Description is funded in 2026 by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Parts of the project have so far been supported by the Alliance of International Production Houses, Kunststiftung NRW within the framework of the project MAY I HUG YOU, and the Norbert Lammert Foundation.
