‘I think it’s a new artform’: Chris Fonseca, the man bringing Deaf dance to the mainstream

“The first thing people see me as is a Black person,” says choreographer and dancer Chris Fonseca, 33, meditating on the multiple aspects of his identity. Only, Chris isn’t speaking to me, at least not in a language I understand; Fonseca has been Deaf since the age of two, and for an hour he communicates to me, via a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter, in an eloquent blur of hand gestures, facial expressions and body language.

He’s currently talking me through his new show, High Times and Dirty Monsters, an inventive collaboration between actors, beatboxers and dancers that celebrates the good, and not-so-good, times of being young and disabled in 2023. It’s a bit of a rave, a house party incorporating videography, sign language and creative captioning to tell the stories of four young people, their successes or “high times” and the challenges of their “dirty monsters”, including accessing housing and university. “I’d say to my to go and watch this play,” he says. “There’s so little awareness of neurodivergence and disability and Deafness, but this play gives [young people] that platform – it’s recognising their voices but it’s also a chance to share their knowledge as well. They know what these situations are like. They live these experiences.”