Inclusive workshops are at the heart of laGeste, as they nourish the organisation through people and shared resources. They are built on the principle of mixability: bringing together people with visible and invisible disabilities, people with and without dance experience, and people with an abundance of enthusiasm and a positive attitude towards their bodies. Age, body mass index, gender, religion all are welcome. Difference is something to be embraced.
The workshops were launched on Dag van de Dans in 2022 with Andrew Graham, the driving force behind the mixability project l’Autre Maison in Marseille. During the first half of 2023, our weekly inclusive workshops took the form of a series of six sessions with the same group of participants, culminating in an informal sharing of the work. Workshops were led by, among others, Lisi Estaras, Gilles Polet, Arno Ferrera, Saïd Gharbi and Anouk Llaurens. Each sharing was followed by a MixabiliParty: an inclusive, alcohol-free dance party with a DJ. For Dag ven de Dans 2023, this programme was expanded in collaboration with Wisper, DEVLOER and Platform K to include a dance jam accompanied by live music.
These inclusive dance parties, in turn, laid the foundations for the development of Bal Brut. Under this collective title, we worked with Andrew Graham to create a format centred on co-creation through mixability. Each Ball is the outcome of a two-week collaborative creative process. Several regular participants also went on to join Andrew Graham’s creation O amor natural.
In 2024, we embarked on an initial exploration of the development of A Wave by Zoë Demoustier. Her workshop with children and adolescents formed part of her research into the transmission of repertoire, undertaken within her two-year research trajectory at CorpoReal.
The artists leading the inclusive workshops each bring their own perspective and artistic inquiry. In the first half of 2025, disability researcher Inge Blockmans and Kris Nelis led a series of workshops for adults whose bodies are changing as a result of long-term illness or permanent injury. The series concluded with a public sharing at the end of June 2025.
In collaboration with VierNulVier, Shonen (Eric Minh Cuong Castaing) organised a joint workshop bringing together participants from Platform K and laGeste. This took place in the lead-up to his performance Formes de vie at De Vooruit, a production developed in Co-laBo, the predecessor of laGeste.
In autumn 2025 and spring 2026, Gilles Polet and Arno Ferrera (the dancers behind the acclaimed duet Cuir and the trio Armour) led the Hedonistic Research Lab, a series of workshops exploring the relationship between disability and pleasure. Each workshop series concluded with an intimate sharing of the work.
