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Friday, October 31, 2014

Young people with disAbilities are breaking the mould around the world

wonderful article by Paola Battista, published by WEST | Oct 2014


More than Down’s syndrome, what Sarah and Marco have in common is the way they live. She is an English actress and he’s a Sicilian gardener with a passion for poetry. Their two parallel stories show how revolutionary new forms of relationships are growing between people with disabilities and the world of work, which no longer consists of quotas and hiring by law. There are also those who are self-made: young people who, even with their difficulties, try to make it by themselves. And sometimes they succeed.
Sarah Gordy is a stage actress who was born in Sussex and is now established in the UK. She makes it clear: “I am first and foremost an actress, a dancer and a woman. I have green eyes and Trisomy 21. OK, I am different and I’m fine about that.” Playwrights like Lisa Evans, with whom she has collaborated several times, are enthusiastic about her. “Sarah is a consummate professional on the stage and on TV. Her work goes beyond the stereotype of characters with Down’s syndrome. She creates original characters who are new and exceptional.” She is also a mesmerising contemporary dancer. She is the bright young star, with John Livingston, of Culture Device Dance Project, an experimental project for professional dancers with Down’s syndrome, which promotes the search for new styles of dance through surprising improvisations.
Marco Caccamese, on the other hand, lives in Sicily. He was born in Catania in 1969 and has a diploma in floriculture. He works as a gardener but in his spare time he is an actor and poet. He wrote the poetry collection ‘Il mio cuore รจ una nuvola che viaggia‘ (My heart is a cloud that travels), which has already attracted favourable reviews. “Often ‘normal’ people assume that the life of a person with a disability is limited because they can’t imagine a life different to their own,” says the cultural association that supports Marco, Culture Possibili. “Marco, with his delicate verses transmits his feelings and emotions to his readers, transforming them into beauty and poetry.”
http://www.west-info.eu/young-people-with-disabilities-are-breaking-the-mould/

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