Access, inclusion and excellence : evaluating Stopgap Dance Company's IRIS programme

Among the numerous barriers to dance for disabled people, one of the key challenges in the UK has been the lack of progressive training routes for diabled dancers who wish to develop their talents. Stopgap Dance Company sought to address this barrier by creating an inclusive talent development programme called IRIS. Consisiting of four levels of increasing complexity, IRIS seeks to provide parity with mainstream training routes to help students progress their skills and confidence in dance. The aim of this research project was to evaluate IRIS in its first two years, while it was piloted with five groups. The evaluation took into consideration the participants' experiences and outcomes of the programme using a longitudinal, mixed methods research design