About Jolt

Founded in 2001 by artistic director Lyn Cotton, Jolt’s whānau currently comprises over 200 dancers with intellectual disabilities aged between 8 and 60+. Our inclusive teaching team work across 20 different weekly classes, nurturing the talents and building the skills of our dancers.

Our kaupapa challenges mainstream views of the disability sector that draw from the following clichés:

• Participation models that embody a low level of expectation for the individual

• Inspiration Porn that is similarly born from a low level of expectation

• Charity models that encourage pity

• Medical models that emphasise perceived deficits

• Therapy models that see a need to heal

Jolt is the only company in Aotearoa to have created a dance teacher training programme for people with intellectual disabilities, known as Move. Move trainees demonstrate not only their capacity for leadership, but also their unique ability to connect with diverse communities and engage them in dance. Move-trained teachers are employed to teach in 10 different weekly Jolt classes, including as leaders in 4 classes, and teach workshops in mainstream schools, tertiary institutions, community hubs and rest homes.

Jolt has also developed a dynamic performance programme that has expanded the boundaries of creativity. Audiences both with and without disabilities have been taken to places they haven’t been before, and which have altered their world view. Projects have included The Seasons, comprising a 6-centre, national tour in partnership with Chamber Music New Zealand, Tukutuku, an artistic collaboration between secondary school students with and without disabilities run in partnership with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Jolt Interactive, interactive, multi-sensory performances designed for audiences with disabilities, films such as SAM, a finalist in the 2021 Doc Edge Film Festival, and the Biennale, showcasing the work of all Jolt’s class groups.