Commitment:
REAson d'etre dance commits to protect the right to be free of discrimination, harassment, and hate activity, based on age, ancestry, citizenship, creed (religion), colour, disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender identity, level of literacy, marital status, place of origin, membership in a union or staff association, political affiliation, race, receipt of public assistance, a record of offense, sexual orientation or any other personal characteristics by or within the organization.
Our Plan is to:
- to hire a diverse range of artists. The aim is that our hiring practices will reflect the diversity of the public as defined by the Ontario Human Rights Code and Section 35(2& 3) of the Constitution of Canada (includes diversity related to race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, marital status, family status, disability or the receipt of public assistance.)
- to give presentations and commission opportunities to a diverse range of artists. The aim is that our presentation and commission practices will reflect the diversity of the public as defined by the Ontario Human Rights Code and Section 35(2& 3). This is a work in progress. See our roster of musicians and see our list of performance artiststo see how far along we are in this process.
- to work towards having and maintaining a board that represents the diversity of Toronto, the city we operate in. The aim is that our board also will reflect the diversity of the public as defined by the Ontario Human Rights Code and Section 35(2& 3). See our current Board of Directors to see how far along in this process we are.
- to putting detailed access information at the point of purchase so that people with disabilities or who are neuro-a-typical can decide if the event will suit them.
- to provide contact info, at the point of purchase, for people to send further questions about access to an event.
- to respond in a timely manner to access questions when we receive questions.
- to open-caption all films that have text that we showcase publicly.
- to provide sliding-scale pricing for our productions, events, and workshops to increase access.
- to provide diversity scholarships for people who identify as being part of a visible or invisible underrepresented group in contact improvisation communities.
- to include access costs such as ASL Interpretation and audio description into our grants showing forethought about access needs from the get-go. If we receive funding for these, we commit to having one performance in a series that will have ASL Interpretation and/or audio description.
- to have one performance in a series be a relaxed performance and to be clear at the point of purchase how we do a relaxed performance so that people can decide if it will work for them.
- to have images on our website be image described
- to image describe images used on social media
- to include access information on social media posts
- to prioritize wheelchair-accessible programming.
- to provide training/initiatives for REAson d'etre dance staff and board and community in diversity and inclusion including dismantling racism, sexism, and ableism.
- to support consent culture in REAson d'etre dance's workplace and its eventsbecause we understand that lack of consent culture is often what makes dance spaces inaccessible for many.
- to provide the public with many different ways to communicate with us,including anonymous options, direct email to the board of directors, direct email to the AD, and direct email to the Safety and Boundary team so our community has access to communication with us that allows for navigation through hierarchical power structures inherent in the structure of charitable arts organizations.
- to provide financial transparency to our community by publicly posting our Profit and Loss statements with more detail than the government public record provides. We feel this is related to accessibility because a lack of transparency in organizations is what can lead to power abuses that decrease access for many. See our P&Ls
- to contribute towards the process of reconciliation by donating 2.5% of all ticket and workshop fees to the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. Please see our P&Ls to see the receipts for these donations.
- To regularly produce both a disability-friendly dance jam and an IBPOC affinity Jam
- To mention in RDD’s definition of Contact Improvisation that it is deeply influenced by the Japanese Martial Art, Aikido, so this fact does not go unknown in our community.
* Please note the importance of referencing Japanese influence on Contact Improvisation was brought to our attention by Suzanne Liska and Pablo Perez.
- REAson d’etre dance in service of climate protection buys carbon offset when we purchase plane fares for artists through Less: Bullfrog Power Company or 8 Billion Threes. See our recent carbon offset purchases. We believe climate issues are a related to diversity and inclusion becasue those with piledge are often less affected by climate change due to access resources.
