Article
For Dean Nash, 'Dean, Don’t Dance!' started with a handful of songs,
stories and jokes sitting in his Notes app — and a frustration about how
rarely disabled stories appeared on Sydney stages.
The musical comedy cabaret follows a physically disabled man trying to
“make it” as a musical theatre performer, but underneath the jokes about
nightclub accessible bathrooms and the theatrical chaos is a much more
personal story about disability, internalised ableism and the pressure
to appear “normal”.
“I think that at its core, it’s about untangling your own view of
yourself from the version you’ve been told you are,” Dean says.
The idea came together in 2024 when Dean applied to perform at
Everything but the Kitchen Sink festival. He had already spent around a
year exploring creative access as an artistic methodology — using access
itself as part of the creative process.
The festival accepted his pitch, giving him a deadline to turn those
fragments into a full show.
Dean’s path into theatre was similarly unexpected. He studied music and
still considers himself a songwriter first, before moving into musical
theatre and acting. He also performed musical comedy with burlesque
troupes, developing a slightly exaggerated version of himself that
eventually became the character at the centre of 'Dean, Don’t Dance!'
For Dean, disability representation is just as important as physical
access.
“If one in five people are disabled, there should be one of us written into every ensemble cast,” he says. “The fact that there usually isn’t says a lot about the cultural barriers disabled artists face.”
Those barriers also inform the way he makes work. Every performance of
'Dean, Don’t Dance!' is Auslan interpreted by Yasmin Dandachi, who also
embodies a character within the show. The performance is audio described
over the PA, with the description sometimes describing Dean’s actions,
dictating them or even criticising them. The audio description was
co-created with Emma Bedford, who also voices it.
Sensory access has been considered throughout the sound and visual
design, and the show is performed only in wheelchair-accessible venues.
Dean describes disability as a culture — something that can be
celebrated as well as challenged through art.
His hope is simple: that audiences have a genuinely entertaining night,
while disabled audiences feel seen and validated and non-disabled
audiences leave with something new to think about.
“Disability-led art can be equal parts celebration and protest,” he
says. “It’s nuanced, relevant and often really incredible.”
Dean Nash is a singer-songwriter, actor, writer and award-winning
theatre maker, as well as a vocal coach and creative access specialist.
He won the Commitment and Innovation in Accessibility Award at Sydney
Fringe in 2025 for 'Dean, Don’t Dance!*'
Dean Nash's show 'Dean, Don't Dance' is on between 7-11th October at Melbourne Fringe