Rosetta Life will tour the UK with Learn From Us, a new disability dance theatre production created with and performed by people living with brain injury.
The tour runs from 24 April to 11 November and opens with a press night at Stanwix Theatre in Cumbria.
The show explores the journey of a mother and son adapting to life after traumatic illness, highlighting independence, resilience and the often unseen labour of unpaid carers.
Featuring professional singer Melanie Pappenheim, dancer Elvi Christiansen Head, and Brain Odysseys ambassadors Jen Chandler and James Heather, the performance blends live movement with global video projections capturing different sensory and emotional perspectives.
Music is composed by Jules Maxwell with lyrics written by participants living with brain injury.
Marking Rosetta Life’s 25th anniversary, the charity draws on years of research showing that creative practices can increase agency, mobility and communication for those living with neurological conditions.
Jen Chandler has worked with Rosetta Life for seven years after surviving a brain injury at 18, while James Heather, a former commercial pilot, joined the project in 2020 and is now a writer and public speaker on recovery.
Learn From Us will also connect with local communities throughout the tour, offering public workshop taster sessions, hospital-based activities and discussions with arts and health professionals. Additional training for artists will take place at The Place in London in December.
Creative Director of Rosetta Life Lucinda Jarrett said, “This ambitious work of dance theatre tells the remarkable story of five people who are grateful for the perspective their brain injury has given them, and now want to offer the wider world a chance to see the world through their eyes. Telling the story of the complex relationship between those who suffer brain injury and those who care for them, Learn from Us tells the story of people who brave independent lives despite devastating head injuries. This touring theatre work is designed to seed arts and health practices across the country, and will demonstrate how arts and health practices can help us build supportive communities and find solutions for the critical, underfunded and oversubscribed health and social care crises we face.”
Rosetta Life’s wider work includes Brain Odysseys, the initiative behind projects such as Hospital Passion Play at the V&A, the digital opera I Look For The Think, and the touring show Stroke Odysseys. The charity is also part of SHAPER, the world’s largest study into the impact of arts interventions on health.
Learn From Us runs for 50 minutes and is suitable for ages 16 and over.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
