Iconic+ redefines what accessibility on stage looks like in Calgary

What does complete accessibility look like in the performing arts?

A dreamlike performance led by artists with disabilities, Iconic+ seeks to flip accessibility from afterthought to intelligent design. The production is created and performed by the National Access Arts Centre’s professional dance ensemble, a group of five emerging artists, and asks: What does it mean to be your most iconic self?

Cassie Holmes, technical translator and designer, says the show’s slogan is key to understanding the vision.

“Every icon starts with a dream. And we feel like that’s the best way to describe it because this truly is going to feel like a dream of a show because we’re doing things that you don’t see in live performance usually,” she said. “We’re trying weird things, and a way to try and make accessibility a driving force of the piece.”

The goal is to present the same level of show for every audience member, no matter their requirements. That includes open audio description before and during the performance, deaf interpreters on stage, relaxed seating, house lights that never fully dim, earplugs and sunglasses for sensory sensitivities, and more.

“I’ve not seen this on a Calgary stage before, so we will see how the audience reacts to it,” Holmes said. “But we’re really excited to show kind of a different art form, a different way. And it can still lead to a beautiful piece that has a lot of resonance in society.”

The show is a hybrid of dance, theatre, spoken word, and music. The ensemble includes Sadie Lennox, performing the deaf-led interpretation; Kathy M. Austin, a writer and visual artist contributing poetry and audio description; Alicia Morrison, a dancer and musician; Dommix Round; Meg Ohsada; and James Silcock.

The work began three years ago as an idea under former program lead Ashley Brodeur and has grown into NaAC’s most ambitious project to date — a full-scale, interdisciplinary performance at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks’ theatre.

Iconic+ also arrives as NaAC launches its most ambitious project yet: a $30 million capital campaign to build what they call the first fully accessible disability-centred arts campus in North America.

Rhi Parsons, Manager of Performing Arts, says the timing is no accident.

“We launched our capital campaign yesterday to raise our ask from 22 million to 30 million just in response to tariffs and the whole economic situation happening right now,” she said. “But yeah, the NAC is really at a point of growth and change right now. And I think that this production reflects the capacity for us to grow into this new position as leaders in the disability arts community.”

The new centre, designed by Dialogue, will feature studios that transform into theatres, a tech booth, and professional training spaces.

“It’s for us, it’s about allowing or making space, pushing, pushing open the space for our artists to be able to work and create and live and be as artists in the world that is not made for them and make that world a bit more welcoming and open for them, you know?” Parsons adds.

Iconic+ runs Sept. 26 and 27 at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks.

More information can be found here.