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Wheelchair
Dancing
This
article is one of the series produced by members of the Ballroom Teachers
Committee.
Following a Ballroom Teachers' Committee meeting, I was asked to do
a pilot study into Wheelchair dancing. Following the completion of the
study, I have pleasure in presenting my findings.
The
pilot study took the form of a six week block of lessons taught in 45
minute classes at a local group, and I had the help of a parent who
ran the sessions with her daughter. I had a mixture of dancers and abilities,
some in wheelchairs, others with walking aids and some with learning
disabilities, there being 11 in all with an age range between 18 and
40. After watching various videos that I had been kindly loaned, I taught
the following in six weeks:
Cha
Cha Cha
Shoulder to Shoulder, Alemana, New York and Spot Turn. With the varied
selection of dancers, I had to adapt some figures to facilitate the
ease of dancing, but all in all, the dancers managed by slowing down
the music.
Line
Dance
This was taken from a line dancing publication and this dance was specially
choreographed for wheelchair users, but had adaptations for non-users.
Coupled with a slower tempo this again was danced by everyone.
Disco
Two simple routines danced in lines were taught, the locomotion and
the hitchhiker, again this being danced by everyone.
At
the end of six weeks, both the dancers and their carers expressed their
enjoyment.
In
conclusion, I found the whole experience to be very rewarding, but some
of the steps needed to be adapted because not all the dancers were wheelchair
bound. The classes were very demanding both physically and mentally,
but the end result was very satisfying.
Nigel
Kirk
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