This article was published in November 2019
Charlotte Edmonds and Elizabeth Arifien felt held back at school, but when they discovered dance they found a new world of expression that has transformed their lives.
Elizabeth and Charlotte are London-based choreographers who are both dyslexic. They are working on a new project that delves into how dance can be used to explore experiences of dyslexia.
They talked to 麻豆官网首页入口 Bitesize about how dance helps them express themselves when they can鈥檛 find the words.
WATCH: Charlotte (left) and Elizabeth (right) talk about dance, dyslexia and their project Words Fail Me
According to the NHS, it is estimated up to one in every ten people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia - that鈥檚 around three students in every classroom.
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling so it creates challenges in school, work and everyday life.
When words fail you
Growing up Elizabeth was often told the disadvantages of dyslexia which made her question her ability to succeed, especially when given written tasks at school.
But when she started dance lessons she found somewhere she could feel comfortable:
鈥淢y mum really encouraged me to go to dance classes and that really supported my mental health as much as my physical health,鈥 said Elizabeth.
She said that dance was a welcome distraction from struggling with dyslexia.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to be physical, even if it鈥檚 not your thing. It gets you out of your head, and I think when you have dyslexia you can often get quite stuck in the negative connotations,鈥 she said.
Charlotte agreed that, when she was faced with a task of written work at school, she would spend hours just staring at a blank piece of paper.
She was shy about speaking up in class, and would be worried about getting things wrong.
鈥淚 just never said anything. I would really suffer in silence,鈥 she said.
But through dance she found a new way to express herself.
鈥淗aving other activities and hobbies, that may help you describe something, or you can channel the way you鈥檙e feeling, your emotion through that. I found that so vital to being able to then implement that into areas I was really struggling with,鈥 said Charlotte.
Charlotte described how using something physical to try and remember something visual, like colours, helped her with her school work.
She also said connecting with something emotionally really helps her to retain information.
'Finding structure in our dyslexic minds'
Elizabeth and Charlotte met in 2018, when they were working on separate projects regarding dyslexia. They decided to collaborate on something bigger.
As part of Words Fail Me, Elizabeth and Charlotte are choreographing and curating six performances and six short films on six different topics: creativity, technology, science, the prison sector, migration, and education.
They are collaborating with dyslexic dancers, musicians and architects.
When working with dyslexic dancers, Elizabeth said they usually start with an improvisational task using an emotion, and then begin to tailor the choreography from that improvisation.
Elizabeth and Charlotte take a collaborative approach and have conversations with their dancers about the choreography:
鈥淪haring insight into their experiences with dyslexia has enriched the process,鈥 said Charlotte.
They then pull together their ideas, write them down and have them all in front of them to piece together and start to structure.
鈥淚t鈥檚 challenging sometimes, finding structure in our dyslexic minds,鈥 said Elizabeth.
'Dyslexia needs to be championed and supported'
Although when Elizabeth and Charlotte were growing up it was well-known that lots of people were dyslexic, they didn鈥檛 feel they had someone to look up to in the creative arts who was saying 'I鈥檓 dyslexic and I鈥檓 thriving because of it'.
鈥淚 think dyslexia needs to be championed and supported,鈥 said Charlotte.
Through their project, Elizabeth and Charlotte are trying to build a community were people can reach out and speak openly about their dyslexia, ultimately with a goal of raising awareness of dyslexia by taking their work around the UK.
鈥淥ne thing that we would really like to see change is having a dyslexia specialist in every school across the UK,鈥 said Elizabeth.
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