The company has partnered with a host of local organisations to bring performers with and without disabilities together in a series of theatre events in and around Cape Town and its townships.

Unmute Integrated Dance Company, the first of its kind in South Africa and Africa, voices through dance that persons with disabilities have the right to be included in every and all aspects of societal life.This company brings artist with mixed abilities and disabilities together using physical dance theatre, and integrated dance with the aim to address society’s view of persons with disabilities. Unmute encourages the artistic and theatre world to break down barriers and to realise that everyone has their own abilities and nobody is confined by their physical abilities.

Marlene Le Roux, Artscape’s director of audience development and education says they are privileged and honoured to be associated with a professional company like Unmute who constantly confront the societal mindset through the medium of dance to force people to see the abilities of persons with disabilities.

Sign language interpreter and company manager Mpotseng Shuping says; “Disability is not a challenge.” Instead she sees people who “cannot deal with disability” as a bigger challenge adding that “inclusiveness is important”.

The festival challenges choreographers, directors, filmmakers, photographers, visual artists and musicians to collaborate or create inclusive works of art for people with mixed abilities. It aims to challenge people’s misconceptions about disability and focuses on ability rather than disability.

The programme for the first Unmute ArtsAbility Festival includes live performances, exhibitions and installations that have been refined through artistic workshops facilitated by artists from the Unmute Dance Company.

The company was born out of deaf dancer Andile Vellem’s search for his voice as a choreographer. As the country’s first fully-fledged integrated performing arts organisation, they seek to inspire the inclusion of differently-abled people in society through the arts.

One of the highlights of the Unmute ArtsAbility Festival is Imbizo Ability, which will be staged, with free admission, in celebration of International Day for People with Disability at the Artscape Opera House on Thursday, 3 December at Noon. Directed by Mandisi Sindo and Themba Mbuli, the show is performed by Lingua Franca, Unmute Dance Company, Muziek Sensation, Art of Hearts, Project Playground, Filia School for Special Needs, Light of Life Theatre, Rainbow Arts Organization, Jazzart and ArtsAbility Trainees. The show brings together performers from different genres and disciplines to create an artistic work that interrogates, integrates and celebrates people’s different abilities.

Other events include a Sign Language and Dance Technique workshop hosted by Andile Vellem and Nadine Mckenzie, a programme showcasing female choreographers and directors, which features commissioned works by Chuma Sopotela, Asanda Rilityana and Louise Coetzer and the screening of the 24-minute Unmute documentary.

For more information, visit www.unmute.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on Facebook.