Workshops and Training
Running Blind offers inclusive dance and access training — from one-off community workshops to organisational training programmes — built from more than a decade of direct collaboration with the blind, visually impaired and deafblind community.
1 · Community & Group Dance Workshops
“Dance for All”
Who it’s for: Community groups, day services, family and carer groups, schools, and arts organisations — integrated workshops for sighted, visually impaired, deafblind and all-ability participants together.
Available as:
- Single Workshop (90–120 minutes)
- Foundation: 6 Week Programme (weekly sessions)
- Performance Project Extension — a further 6 weeks (fixed), building toward a shared performance
Core content:
- Inclusive Dance skills
- Contemporary Dance foundations to support balance, coordination & proprioception
- Social Haptic Communication for everyday life, Sensory Listening
- Guiding, Mapping exercises, Contact Improvisation Fundamentals
- Consent, Informed touch, Non-Hierarchical Partnering
- Creative Audio Description, Voice and Text, Sonic Scores
- Somatic Movement for nervous system regulation, Developmental Patterns, Body Puzzles
- Artistic expression, Creative Play, Authentic Movement
Performance Project:
The core foundation programme is about gaining skills and confidence. The Performance Project is a distinct second phase focused on creative process, devising and performance practice, building toward a performance.
Each workshop is customised to participants’ needs and abilities, developed through extensive collaboration with people who have visual impairment and deafblindness.
Participants consistently report:
- Greater self-confidence and body-awareness
- Heightened spatial awareness and sensory listening
- Improved strength, coordination, proprioception and stability
- Practical skills that carry into everyday life and social situations
- Creative self-expression, in a safe, non-hierarchical space
- Experience a sense of freedom rarely found elsewhere
- New friendships, community connection, and improved physical and mental wellbeing
- Enjoyment, Wellbeing and a rare opportunity to create and perform
Based on direct feedback from participants of a post-programme focus group.
Get in touch for pricing and availability →laura@runningblind.ie
What Participants Say
- “I thought dance was impossible — these workshops have made the impossible possible.” — John, 2019
- “My self-confidence has improved… through this session, I feel good about myself.” — Eugene, 2018
- “I can feel the world through my feet — now I understand that listening is not just with your ears, but your whole body.” — Barry, 2017
- “I deepened my understanding of touch as a form of communication.” — Tony, 2019
- “It is a very supportive environment where we could explore freedom and independence, it’s broadened my world.”— Laura, 2024
- “We are all equal here.” — Úna, 2025
2 · Access & Inclusion Awareness Training for Organisations
Who it’s for:
Whole staff teams to gain practical awareness skills to bring ease, confidence and skill in supporting people with visual impairment, enabling a more inclusive workplace and inclusive public engagement.
Format: Single session, 2.5 hours
Session content:
- Understanding visual impairment, deafblindness and non-visual communication, dispelling assumptions
- Basic sighted-guide technique, consent, informed touch, how to map your environment
- Communication etiquette: introducing yourself, describing environment, inclusive language
- Introduction to Social Haptic Communication
- Practical access and inclusion awareness skills for everyday life and workplace
- Scenario-based Q&A drawn from the group’s experience, interest and working context
“Everyone on the team left with a new understanding of access and inclusion, ready and able to welcome and support a visually impaired visitor with confidence.”
Get in touch for pricing and availability →laura@runningblind.ie
3 · Inclusive Practitioner Training
“Beyond Sight: Embodied Practice for Access & Inclusion”
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- 6-Week Programme — 3-hour half-day, weekly
- 3-Day Intensive — full days, consecutive
- Session 1 — Advanced Guiding: Consent, Informed Touch, Spatial Mapping, Non-Hierarchical Practice
- Session 2 — Embedding Access into Language: Etiquette, Structuring Audio Description, Translation
- Session 3 — Tactile Instruction: Haptic communication, hand-under-hand, non-verbal communication
- Session 4 — Embodied Voice: Working with Sound, Text, Soundscape, Dance of Description Practice
- Session 5 — Inspiring Agency: Creating Safe Space, Partnering, Improvisation Technique, Spatial Scores
- Session 6 — Integration: Supervised practice, adaptation and personalisation of working methods
Online Facilitation — Supporting People Online: A separate workshop addressing what changes when in-person haptic and tactile skills move online — covering access considerations, structuring descriptive language, directional and spatial wording, placement and framing, voice as a descriptive tool, layered description in real time, and accessible online workshop format.
Outcome: Participants gain the practical skill and confidence to support people who are visually impaired, blind, or deafblind — and to adapt their existing practice so they can build and deliver an inclusive programme within their own organisation or community.
Certificate of Attendance: Available for anyone completing the 6-Week Programme or 3-Day Intensive.