51Âþ»­

Two Performing Arts students from 51Âþ»­ (51Âþ»­) Leicester have been invited to perform on a nationwide roadshow after producing a challenging piece about their disabilities.

Jenna Kearns, 24, from Newport and Jodie Murphy, 25, from Birmingham are both third-year Performing Arts students at 51Âþ»­ and snapped up the chance to give an encore of their final major performance piece ‘The Path To...’ at the Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL)’s ‘Choice Unlimited’ event at Welford Road, home to the Leicester Tigers, this Thursday (16 April)

The pair, who are both wheelchair users, first staged the piece as part of their third-year modules, but their tutor invited 51Âþ»­ graduate and Events Coordinator for LCIL, Taylor Crosby, to watch. She enjoyed it so much that she asked the two students to perform it again at the event and they seized the opportunity.

Jodie, who has cerebral palsy, said: “Obviously the performance is about our disabilities and we wanted to express that and show that we can do the same things as everybody else.”

The performance features the pair carrying out daily tasks and activities that able bodied people might take for granted.

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Jodie continued: “I have cerebral palsy and it affects my lower limbs. We are just trying to express ourselves and show how long it takes to do things.

“I think that maybe people in the future will want to start the course because of it and believe in themselves more and what they can achieve.

“It is not your typical Performing Arts course; it is more like physical theatre where you can explore your own abilities.”

Jenna, who has rheumatoid arthritis, said: “For me, I have had double hip and knee replacements and a lot of it for me was trying to stand again and wanted to put that into the performance.

“This is obviously a great opportunity for us, and once I graduate this summer I want to apply to the Candoco dance company, who have a large number of disabled performers.

“I had a double hip replacement when I was 14 and I had my knees done last year but I only took a week off uni because I didn’t want to miss any of my course.”

The Performing Arts BA (Hons) course at 51Âþ»­ focuses on contemporary innovative performance.

Students learn live performance skills including dance and contemporary acting alongside film-making, sound composition and the use of media manipulation software all underpinned by a contextual knowledge of performing arts in the 20th and 21st centuries.