Weave Movement Theatre’s Artistic Director Janice Florence speaks to Inform Magazine about her vision and ideas behind the company, Weave’s recent ButohOUT! performance at The Abbotsford Convent and why after 22 years of operations Weave is still as important as ever.

This highly prestigious and inaugural award from the Australia Council celebrates the work and achievements of established and emerging artists, and the significant contribution of artists with disability to the vibrancy of Australian arts. Janice is based in Melbourne and has trained in dance in Australia and the USA. In 1983 she completed a Graduate Diploma of Movement and Dance at Melbourne University. For 10 years, she was a performer, teacher and researcher with State of Flux, one of the first Australian companies to include a dancer with a disability. Janice has worked and had residencies with Karen Nelson, exponent of ‘diverse dance’ in the USA and with Blue-Eyed Soul, Touchdown and CanDoCo in the UK.

Janice has been a pioneering force in the field of inclusive dance and physical theatre for the past 30 years and in the wider arts sector. Since acquiring a disability as the result of a dance related accident, she has experimented, explored and consolidated first with her own transformed body and then with the many performers with disability who have passed through the Weave Movement Theatre company and the workshops for people outside the company, including the first national professional development workshop for performers with disability in 2014 supported by Arts Access Australia and Australia Council for the Arts.