Disability and Ecology Performance Exchange (D.E.P.E.) Lab
About
Each invited participant initiated opportunities for the group, sharing questions and ideas that came from their own practice. DEPE’s 2024 guests were vital contributors to the reimagining of Disability within the fields of dance, art, academia, and disability studies.
Envisioned by Victoria Marks, DEPE aspired to support the growth of a creative/research-based community advocating for perspectives informed by diverse corporeal experiences.
DEPE represented a continued commitment from UCLA to center Disability Studies as a powerful interdisciplinary methodology in nearly every field. DEPE built on Marks’ 2019–2023 UCLA Dancing Disability Labs (DDLs). Each year, DDL’s cohort of Lab participants contributed considerations and frameworks for the labs that followed. We are thankful for these insights and contributions.
DDL and DEPE was built on Marks’ choreographic practice of convening “Action Conversations” — a structure that brought groups of people together, often with different lived experiences, to engage in movement and discussion. “When we move together, engage in play together, the conversation changes,” said Marks.
Past “Action Conversations” have included teen mothers and an older generation of women in rural Bellows Falls VT; Veterans in a Los Angeles Combat Rehab program together with dance artists; and UCLA Fraternity and Sorority students together in a discussion of the unspoken texts of “hook-up” culture. 10 Questions, a variation of Action Conversations, (2018-2022) brought together artists, activists, scholars, and scientists in public forums to engage questions like: How do we remember? How do we love? How do we forgive?
SCHOLARLY & ARTISTIC CONVENING
The structure of DEPE aimed to support the individual and collective inquiries of every participant. DEPE was held at UCLA from July 8–15, 2024. Throughout the week, inquiries devoted attention to the relationship between bodies and the environment.
Inquiry formats included conversations, studio experiments, and writing prompts. While the convening was brief, each day was an opportunity to capture artifacts of the exchanges. Ideas were encouraged to circulate throughout the cohort and outward amongst colleagues and students.
Throughout the experience, DEPE strived to align disability justice with creative and research practices, to uphold a commitment of providing an anti-racist, anti-ableist, gender-inclusive, anti-ageist environment for all, and to support belonging to the diverse community of artists and scholars. DEPE worked closely with Embraced Body: India Harville and JJ Omelagah, who served as access and equity facilitators during planning and throughout the convening.
An informal public sharing of findings occurred on July 15, 2024 at Kaufman Hall’s small theater/studio. This small public sharing was framed by the questions we asked ourselves and the experiences we undertook throughout the week.
A short film created by Jingqiu Guan was created as one of the artifacts to publicly share some of the engagement, movement, and conversations by the artists and scholars.
Organizers
The Dancing Disability Lab has operated with support from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, UCLA’s Division of Undergraduate Education Initiatives, the School of the Arts and Architecture, and Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. This year’s DEPE Lab is receiving funding directly from UCLA’s office of the Executive Vice Chancellor, UCLA’s office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the School of the Arts and Architecture.
Sponsors
