H’art Centre’s Able Artists series sponsored a talk and film screening by Menka 
Nagrani, founder and choreographer of Montreal’s Les Productions des pieds des mains at the Canadian Association of Theatre Research 2018 conference that was held at the Isabel Bader Centre in May.
The Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR) is a non-profit organization founded in 1976 to support and encourage research in theatre and performance studies in Canada, with a special interest in Canadian work.
(with a screening of Eurêka)
Presented by Menka Nagrani
After 20 years of teaching dance, movement and theatre to artists with intellectual disabilities, Menka Nagrani has developed an array of pedagogical methods aimed at readying these performers for the professional stage. In 2004, Nagrani launched Les Productions des Pieds des Mains as a dance and theatre company that integrates an atypical cast of dancers and actors in its creations, including many of her students. They take an interdisciplinary approach to their performances, which are at the crossroads between contemporary dance and experimental theatre. In this talk, Nagrani highlighted some of her approaches and techniques.
Eurêka, the short film
In order to demonstrate the breadth of her work with Les Productions des pieds des mains, Nagrani presented a short artistic dance film,Eurêka, which is currently touring film festivals around the world. The film was created with three star artists, all of whom have Down Syndrome, and a cast of 20 extras who also have Down Syndrome.