Dr. Devon Healey Innovates Accessible Dance Experiences Created through Blind Perception at Fall for Dance North and The Royal Ballet
From October 21st26th, Fall for Dance North wrapped its 2025 festival with , a vibrant performance experience at OCAD University's Great Hall. Were proud to share that among the featured artists was our very own Devon Healey, who created Dancing with Blindness, a new work with Esie Mensah, the 2025 Artist-in-Residence. Dr. Healey, with SJE PhD student and GA Matida Daffeh, lead a three-day public rehearsal where she, alongside Mensah, created a new Afrofusion work in collaboration with Healeys Immersive Descriptive Audio. This work, [wove] together Mensahs intentions and physicality with Healeys experience of the movement through the perceptions of blindness. This powerful approach pulls us immediately into the dancing body, inviting audiences to encounter dance beyond the visual.
Dr. Healey is Fall for Dance Norths inaugural . Over these three years, the partnership will explore how engaging the perceptions of blindness can enhance our experiences of dance, forging new understandings of movement, language, embodiment, and accessibility.
View the event details:
Looking ahead, Dr. Healey will bring her work to a global stage at the Royal Ballet for on November 12th. This commission is curated by Robert Binet, directed by Kevin OHare, set to music by Max Richter with Healey as lead artist.
Dr. Healeys Immersive Descriptive Audio will guide audiences through a new commission created in collaboration with world-class choreographers Sir Wayne McGregor, Tiler Peck, Bim Malcomson, and Rebecca Myles Stewart, set to music by acclaimed composer Max Richter. As Healey explains, the immersive descriptive audio develops a rapport between blindness and sight through a soundscape, giving voice to that which does not always appear It is not merely a description of a performance. It is a performance.
The commission, lead by both Binet and Healey, explores how Access Becomes Art through cultivating, nurturing, and engaging blind and disabled perspectives to reimagine how it is we create and produce art. These reimaginings will transform dance, opening new modes of perception, creativity, and collaboration. The six-minute work will be streamed live on YouTube on November 12th at 4 PM BST / 11 AM EST, connecting audiences worldwide to this innovative experience. Binet and Healey have extended this invitation to ballet companies around the globe. Access becomes art will be shared globally with commitments from leading companies to transform how it is they think, feel, and create.
Learn more about World Ballet Day 2025 and stream live:
See Devon Healey discuss her process in rehearsal:
Read an article from Londons The Guardian on the project:
Congratulations to Dr. Devon Healey for creating performances that, through blind and disabled perceptions, are transforming how dance can be perceived, shared, and felt.
