On a sunny London afternoon, I rang up Caroline Bowditch, who at the time was sitting in her hotel room in Dundee, Scotland. For those Bachtrack readers that don't know who Caroline Bowditch is, she says: “I would describe myself as a performance artist/maker. A facilitator of learning in all sorts of ways.” She is a self proclaimed provocateur who thinks of herself as “a mosquito buzzing in the ears of the industry”. Passionately, Caroline says the “aim for my work is to create a space to think, feel or believe something different. I say I am a disabled artist openly and that's fine. Everything I do is inclusive, not an afterthought, but embedded in everything.” Caroline is an artist with a disability who has very clear views about herself, the world and the dance industry.
When I heard Caroline's “mosquito” self-reference, I asked her to elaborate a bit on this. “I was asked to give a presentation in 2008. I’d recently heard a quote from Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop, that said ‘If you think you're too small to make a difference, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.’” Caroline is a mighty woman who is turning many heads and for all the right reasons; even though some liken her to a mosquito in the room. Naturally, I felt I should ask her about inclusive dance and what it means to her. She replied “To be open to who is in the room.” Talk about short and sweet.
I then moved on to accessibility. How accessible is the dance industry? What could be done to make it more inclusive? Caroline emphasized, repeated and was obviously sincere when she said,“I am very thankful and grateful for all of the opportunities I have been given, but for many disabled dancers they are few and far between.” She went on to say “Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between lack of opportunities available because I am a disabled dancer or because I am a woman. When you look at Associate Artists for places like Sadler's Wells or others, 75% are men. There are men and women making work but somehow the men are the ones that get the larger, higher profile jobs.” Why do you think so? What can be done? And how can we change this? “ This is a gross generalization but men tend be more assertive and so maybe that's why they get more work. Women, historically, are afforded less power, and maybe it is a hangover of that mentality.” Caroline was not being negative but stating her observations of the industry and is perhaps forcing the industry to reflect a bit on how accessible the field really is and who we consider to be successful... Starting to gather why some call her a provocateur.