By Laura Evans
Two disabled dancers. One stage. A room full of people who needed to see this.
On 9th December 2025, Lauren Russell and Arif “OneLegz” took to the stage at Teater Wahyu Sihombing, Taman Ismail Marzuki in Jakarta. In the audience: representatives from Ballet ID — Indonesia’s national ballet company — senior British Council leaders, government officials, and disability-led organisations. And then they performed.
Not as a warm-up. Not as a side note. As the main event.
If you know the world of contemporary ballet, you know this production. Akram Khan’s reimagining of Giselle for English National Ballet is one of the most talked-about pieces of the last decade — raw, political, visceral. It asks hard questions about who belongs, who gets cast out, and whose body is considered worthy of the stage.
It was the perfect starting point.
Factory Devotion is a contemporary dance duet created directly in response to Khan’s Giselle, performed as part of the British Council’s celebration of ENB’s 75th anniversary. We Are Epic brought together Lauren Russell (UK) and Arif “OneLegz” (Indonesia) — two disabled dancers — to create and perform a new piece that put those same questions centre stage, but answered them differently.
That context matters. Because for decades, ballet — even contemporary ballet — has had a very clear idea of what a dancer looks like. Factory Devotion was a direct challenge to that idea, performed in front of exactly the people who have the power to change it.
The piece was created over three days of intensive rehearsal in Bali with choreographer Jasmine of Kita Poleng, before both artists travelled to Jakarta for the performance. The creative process was genuinely collaborative — Jasmine brought structural ideas, including the striking use of ladders as a physical and symbolic element, and then opened the floor for Lauren and Arif to find their own movement within it.
For Arif, it was his first time responding to the work of a choreographer of this profile. For Lauren, it was a piece she had long admired — and now she was inside it, reshaping it through her own body and her own experience.
That’s what inclusive dance does at its best. It doesn’t copy. It translates. And as Lauren has said before, that translation requires more, not less — more brain power, more creative investment, more of yourself.
The night before the performance, both artists were in the same theatre watching the screening of Swan Lake and a curtain raiser from Ballet ID. The bar had been set high. By the time costumes were on and they were waiting backstage, nerves were there — but so was the preparation.
Think about who was in that room. Ballet ID. British Council leadership. Government officials. People who influence arts policy, funding, and programming — in Indonesia and beyond. People who decide which bodies get platformed, which companies get supported, what ballet is allowed to look like.
And in front of them: two disabled dancers, performing a piece of contemporary dance in direct dialogue with one of the most acclaimed productions in recent ballet history.
That’s the thing. It didn’t need a speech or a manifesto. The performance itself made the argument. High quality disabled-led work, at an international level, in conversation with the biggest names in contemporary ballet. The message to everyone in that room was simple: this is what’s possible. This is what you’ve been missing.
The day before the performance, Lauren and Arif co-delivered an inclusive dance workshop — practical, open, and genuinely attended by people who wanted to learn. The session was followed by a discussion that clearly landed.
This is how change actually happens — not just through one powerful performance, but through the conversations it opens up. The workshop gave people tools. The performance gave them a reason to use them.
We asked both artists what this project gave them. Their answers say everything.
Ballet has a representation problem. It always has. But things are — slowly, quietly — shifting. Lauren knows this better than most:
Factory Devotion was part of that shift — but on an international scale. Presenting disabled dancers in direct dialogue with Akram Khan’s Giselle, in front of national ballet companies and cultural policymakers, wasn’t a gesture. It was a statement about where contemporary ballet can go, and who it can include.
At We Are Epic, we’re not waiting for the conversation to catch up. We’re just cracking on and doing it.
And from Arif:
Factory Devotion was supported by the British Council as part of the English National Ballet 75th Anniversary celebrations in Indonesia. We Are Epic would like to thank Kita Poleng, Ballet ID, and all who attended the workshop and performance in Jakarta.