Wheelchair Dancing Video


jriva

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Jean,

 

All of the people in the chairs must be non handicapped, just using a chair for the routine. Amazing how 25 countries are participating, interesting to say the least.

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Not true, Fred. They ARE all disabled people in those wheelchairs. This is just one of many disability sports I've recently discovered. Your mistaken observation is really interesting. It showcases a stereotype that we all have to some degree---that we can't image a disabled person could have that much fun doing something that we think of as something just for able-bodied people. Can you image how much practice they must do to master those routines? And many of them have customized wheelchairs or the sport models with the wheels slanted inward. Some have two and three extra little wheels that appear to make the spins possible. That spin the girl in white does in the rumba is amazing!

 

I love the music they play with the waltz...."we were moving mountain rock before we knew we could....there can be miracles when you believe."

 

Jean

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Thanks Jean, they fooled me by the way they can move their bodies. The only part of their bodies that didn't seem to move was their legs and feet.

 

From the waist up you can't tell by their movements they are disabled.

Especially the guys the way they move their arms, head and backs, that's just amazing to me.

 

I don't have near that much movement in my body now being paralyzed on one side. I guess I was comparing their ability in being so mobile to when I was in my chair having to be helped and pushed by my wife.

 

I can't compare them to me, plus they train everyday I'm sure.

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Fred,

 

There is one couple in there where the woman appears to be paralyzed from the waist up as well as from the waist down. But they don't show her for long. She has the telltale headrest on her chair and she's being pulled around by her dance partner using a piece of lavender fabric so the competition must be open to all degrees of paralysis. I would image in the local dance sport clubs for the disabled you'd see more people like her and Don and his niece, dancing in their wheelchairs just to have a good time. I never would have guessed that what Don and his niece do at weddings receptions together could a competition sport! They, of course, aren't any where near as skilled at it as these people are, but when I showed this video to Don he was as awestruck as I am. What's good about this video is it shows what you can do if you don't put limitations on yourself.

 

Jean

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Here's another video of sport dancing. It's from the 2006 world championship in Arnhem, NL

 

To me, it looks like the non-disabled partners have to be a little more athletic than the people doing traditional ballroom dancing.

 

Jean

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