A event on Thursday 23rd May. The event starts at 11:00.
Blind Magic – performance with and for visually-impaired audiences
An informal conversation between Jo Bannon and dance artist Holly Thomas, that delves deeper into Jo’s Blind Magic triptych alongside Holly’s Half Light project, and considers them within the context of creating work with and for visually-impaired audience.
Image description
A close up, landscape shot of three white hands emerging from underneath a pink, velvet curtain. The frame is taken up by the pink of the curtain, which is the same material lining the table upon which one of the three hands rests, concealing a coin. The two hands either side are raised off the table, palms upturned, with one hand pointing its index finger upwards, the other balancing a coin on its middle finger.
Join us for Sleight of Hand, tactile installation for curious fingers and unbelieving eyes by Jo Bannon. Subverting the format of a touch tour*, this sumptuous work invites audiences to participate in a series of touch encounters with unknown objects, materials and matter.
Book your tickets: https://www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest#group/sleight-of-hand
Photo credit: Jo Bannon
This performance is part of Mayfest: Bristol's international festival of contemporary theatre and live performance, curated and produced by MAYK. Check out the full programme at mayk.org.uk/mayfest, @mayfestbristol.
About Jo Bannon
Jo is an artist working in performance, choreography and film. Her practice is concerned with how our specific bodies, identities and sensory perceptions impact how we experience the world around us, and how this sensory experience can or cannot be conveyed. Her work is informed by her identity as a disabled woman with albinism and attempts to unpick the ways we look, hear and sense our immediate environment in order to rethink or make unfamiliar these intrinsic human behaviours. Bannon’s work is led by form and so manifests in various mediums including intimate encounters designed for single or small audiences, staged performance, dance, film and installation.
Jo is premiering Sleight of Hand – an interactive installation which forms part of the Blind Magic trilogy at Mayfest 2024. Blind Magic is a triptych of works comprising a film, installation and live performance. Across these media, the project explores the friction and overlaps between three elements: blind virtuosity, sleight of hand magic and audio description/deception.
The works celebrate the techniques employed by Blind and VI folk to navigate the world through senses other than sight. They explore the multifaceted labour required for VI folk to perform and ‘pass’ in a society organised around the primacy of sight. Find out more about Blind Magic: https://www.mayk.org.uk/current/blind-magic
Find out more and book tickets for Sleight of Hand here
https://www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest#group/sleight-of-hand
About Holly Thomas
Holly is a UK based dance artist, choreographer and performer with a specialism in inclusive choreography and embodied audio-description for dance.
Holly’s practice explores the often uncharted territory of dance and visual impairment and the aesthetics of choreography from a non-visual perspective. She works with somatic and contemporary dance methods and techniques, exploring the subtleties of these practices and how they might be reimagined within the context of inclusive dance making and performance.
She has been performing professionally in dance work since 2000, working both nationally and internationally. Alongside her dance work she is also an educator, visiting lecturer and facilitator in inclusive dance practice and contact improvisation.
Free event, but you’ll need to book your space in advance.
This talk is part of Mayfest: Bristol's international festival of contemporary theatre and live performance, curated and produced by MAYK. Check out the full programme at
mayk.org.uk/mayfest, @mayfestbristol
Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)
An informal conversation between Jo Bannon and dance artist Holly Thomas, that delves deeper into Jo’s Blind Magic triptych alongside Holly’s Half Light project, and considers them within the context of creating work with and for visually-impaired audience.
Image description
A close up, landscape shot of three white hands emerging from underneath a pink, velvet curtain. The frame is taken up by the pink of the curtain, which is the same material lining the table upon which one of the three hands rests, concealing a coin. The two hands either side are raised off the table, palms upturned, with one hand pointing its index finger upwards, the other balancing a coin on its middle finger.
Join us for Sleight of Hand, tactile installation for curious fingers and unbelieving eyes by Jo Bannon. Subverting the format of a touch tour*, this sumptuous work invites audiences to participate in a series of touch encounters with unknown objects, materials and matter.
Book your tickets: https://www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest#group/sleight-of-hand
Photo credit: Jo Bannon
This performance is part of Mayfest: Bristol's international festival of contemporary theatre and live performance, curated and produced by MAYK. Check out the full programme at mayk.org.uk/mayfest, @mayfestbristol.
About Jo Bannon
Jo is an artist working in performance, choreography and film. Her practice is concerned with how our specific bodies, identities and sensory perceptions impact how we experience the world around us, and how this sensory experience can or cannot be conveyed. Her work is informed by her identity as a disabled woman with albinism and attempts to unpick the ways we look, hear and sense our immediate environment in order to rethink or make unfamiliar these intrinsic human behaviours. Bannon’s work is led by form and so manifests in various mediums including intimate encounters designed for single or small audiences, staged performance, dance, film and installation.
Jo is premiering Sleight of Hand – an interactive installation which forms part of the Blind Magic trilogy at Mayfest 2024. Blind Magic is a triptych of works comprising a film, installation and live performance. Across these media, the project explores the friction and overlaps between three elements: blind virtuosity, sleight of hand magic and audio description/deception.
The works celebrate the techniques employed by Blind and VI folk to navigate the world through senses other than sight. They explore the multifaceted labour required for VI folk to perform and ‘pass’ in a society organised around the primacy of sight. Find out more about Blind Magic: https://www.mayk.org.uk/current/blind-magic
Find out more and book tickets for Sleight of Hand here
https://www.mayk.org.uk/mayfest#group/sleight-of-hand
About Holly Thomas
Holly is a UK based dance artist, choreographer and performer with a specialism in inclusive choreography and embodied audio-description for dance.
Holly’s practice explores the often uncharted territory of dance and visual impairment and the aesthetics of choreography from a non-visual perspective. She works with somatic and contemporary dance methods and techniques, exploring the subtleties of these practices and how they might be reimagined within the context of inclusive dance making and performance.
She has been performing professionally in dance work since 2000, working both nationally and internationally. Alongside her dance work she is also an educator, visiting lecturer and facilitator in inclusive dance practice and contact improvisation.
Free event, but you’ll need to book your space in advance.
This talk is part of Mayfest: Bristol's international festival of contemporary theatre and live performance, curated and produced by MAYK. Check out the full programme at
mayk.org.uk/mayfest, @mayfestbristol
Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)
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