Enter The Dragon’s Cave

A young person’s hands resting on a tray table in a dark room. Hovering just above the tray table is a translucent green, blue and yellow dragon puppet. A supporting adult holds the puppet with one hand and shines a light on its wings. This illuminates the dragon and bathes the young person’s hands and the tray table in colour.

Photo by Claire Conroy, Oily Cart

Enter The Dragon’s Cave (ETDC) is Jo-anne’s most recent multidisciplinary project. ETDC is a sonically-rich sensory theatre experience bringing high quality Disabled-led arts to young people with profound disabilities. The project is co-creational in approach and aims to connect participants to their own Dragon’s Cave - their space of wonder and exploration. The young people’s authentic self-expression and responses are integral to bringing the Dragon’s Cave and its story to life.

Update 2026

Delighted to announce Enter the Dragon's Cave R&D 2026 and I am absolutely BLOWN AWAY that this next step towards touring is taking place in association with Oily Cart and supported by Half Moon Theatre.

After extensive development with young people with multiple barriers to access, we are taking a step back from schools to further develop what we have learned, with dedicated time to work together as a team. Forever grateful and inspired to work with music technologist, Gary Day; puppetry director, Rachel Warr; dramaturg, Lowri Jenkins; vocalist, Valeria Radchenko; and producer, Foteini Galanopoulou.

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Supported by the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial.

History

The project originated in 2022 during Jo-anne’s Artistic Residency with Oily Cart Theatre, the UK’s leading sensory theatre company for young people. Mentored by Ellie Griffiths, Jo-anne worked with Lowri Jenkins (creative enabler), Rachel Warr (puppeteer) and Gary Day (creative technologist) exploring cello, changes in light, shadow puppetry and interactive music technology.

Further development was supported in 2024-25 by Waltham Forest’s Make it Happen grants programme. Following a residency style model, ETDC was delivered at specialist schools between November 2024 and March 2025, led by Jo-anne Cox in collaboration with Lowri Jenkins (dramaturg), Rachel Warr (puppeteer), Gary Day (creative technologist), Valeria Radchenko (creative enabler), Francesca Clark (producer) and the young people themselves.

A student’s hand is pressing a button on a MIDI instrument called CMPSR. The CMPSR is a black handheld device with two rows of four buttons and a joystick above, akin to a wheelchair controller. The CMPSR is being held up for the student to interact with by Valeria, a member of the creative team, and a teacher. The photo appears tinted as the room is illuminated by a pinky-purple light. — Photo by Jenna Selby

A student cups her hands on her lap to feel the texture of a cabasa, a percussive instrument, being offered to the student by a member of staff. The cabasa consists of loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wooden cylinder, fixed to a black plastic handle. The photo appears tinted as the room is illuminated by a pinky-purple light. — Photo by Jenna Selby

In March 2025, the first single from the show was released. Enchanted Shore is a stylised version, performed by Jo and Valeria, of music from the first scene in the show. Listen here.

In October 2025, ETDC was presented at Arts Action Festival at Rich Mix by Sibling Arts, where our adult audience experienced Disabled-led sensory theatre for themselves. This was a rare opportunity for general audiences to discover the value of sensory theatre as many sensory theatre events are closed to the public for safeguarding and access considerations.

A photo of Jo-anne playing cello at Rich Mix. Jo-anne is a white woman in her 50's seated with her purple sparkling cello. Her right arm is extended, drawing the bow across a string. Her left arm is held up and fingers are on the strings. She is wearing a burgundy short sleeved sparkly dress, a silver sparkly necklace and long brown hair. She is looking to one side smiling. The background lighting is purple. — Photo by Beth Kelly

A photo of Valeria singing at Rich Mix. Valeria is a white person with blonde hair. Their eyes are closed, they look like they're shouting. Valeria is wearing a black mesh long sleeve top, an iridescent waist coat and black pleather trousers. The lighting is purple. — Photo by Beth Kelly

A photo of a shadow dragon puppet appearing on the hands of several audience members. A torch shines light through the puppet, casting yellow, purple and green light on their hands. — Photo by Beth Kelly

A photo of LED light up wings being held up by audience members. The lights are red, yellow, green and blue on translucent fabric. — Photo by Beth Kelly

Feedback:
"I am so so grateful for the opportunity you gave us to work with Jo-anne and the team. It was such a wonderful experience for all the students and staff. I am always trying to look for enriching activities for our learners with complex needs and this was truly spectacular.” Teacher at JFK school.

“This project not only provided an enriching experience for our students' educational journey, but also allowed us as educators to collaborate with experts in ways that we don't always get to. One of the most heartwarming aspects of this experience was witnessing the increased confidence and communication skills our students gained. Students were able to engage and communicate freely in a safe and encouraging space. The impact of the 'Enter the Dragon's Cave' project will be remembered by both the students and staff for a long time.” Vice Principal at Margaret Brearley School.