Establishing my professional practise as an inclusive practitioner within performing arts would have been a very difficult thing to do a long time ago as the definition is not set in stone, I believe inclusive practise must be experience to fully understand apposed to other things which you can define without experience but having five years of exposure and being able to fully amerce myself within the practise I am able to give you my personal definition because I believe everyone who has experienced inclusion will have their own interpretation and views which is one of the great thing about being a inclusive practitioner/performer because the practise is so open which enables it to be forever growing and evolving.
My definition of Inclusive practise covers a range of fields from the initial stages of education to a professional performance. I believe inclusive practise is how you as the practitioner are constantly adapting your method to effectively gain the best out of all you work with but not loosing the key elements to your method through the adaptation for example when delivering an inclusive workshop, if some individuals are not responding to it because of the material, adapt your method of delivery to include them but not loosing the goal or essence of your material.
Individual, this word is key to inclusive practise although you may think it would be better off associated with exclusive mainstream theatre it is vital in inclusive practise. A major assumption people often make is thinking inclusive practice is about everyone as a whole which would not be wrong but to effectively work with and engage the whole group you must know every individual whether it is a group of ten or a group of one hundred this allows you to gain the most out of the group and also for individuals to gain the most out of you to push them self to the best of their own ability.
Which brings me on to “support” which consists of being able to give those who need extra support or the guidance they need to focus there efforts in the right direction or being able to identify those who do not have the confidence to voice an opinion or even an idea, to be able to give them that support and chance to be heard only add more colour to you pallet of ideas to create and performs in brand new and exciting ways. I believe support is vital and everyone need support but in different measurements when needed.
