When Dancing a Giantess is Not a Hobby
About forty people with and without disabilities form the Colla, the group of carriers, of the Giantess Frida, a figure adapted to a wheelchair and other difficulties built in 2018 belonging to the Tarragona City Council. Our desire is to contribute to the visibility and naturalisation of disability through participation in popular and festive culture.
The initiative is part of a municipal program, Festivity for Everyone, created in 1991. Community, citizenship, culture, inclusivity, humanism.
"When dancing a giant pretends not to be a hobby". Allow us to keep this long title of the project because we want to make clear our desire to contribute to the naturalisation of the fact of disability, focused on the springs of collective imaginaries, through active participation in the most intense moments, such as popular festivals in our cultural sphere.
The forty people, with and without disabilities, who make up the group, carry and dance the Geganta Frida, inspired by the great Mexican painter, a festive figure and popular culture in Catalonia, who is adapted to wheelchairs and other types of difficulty Thus, the expenses charged to the presented project are: . adapted collective transport . the revitalisation . the summer wardrobe With regard to the need to have adapted collective transport (coaches on discretionary journeys), it arises from the fact that a significant part of carriers has reduced mobility and travels in wheelchairs. In addition, these vehicles allow the transport of the giant in its hold, a service that is obviously essential.
Likewise, the characteristics of our group means that from the beginning we saw the need to have a figure who would bring together a series of tasks, if necessary from a professional role. We have been lucky that since the christening of the giant, in September 2018, this figure, who also acts as gang leader, has been incorporated by the same person who is held in high esteem.