Shall We Dance?
Nancy Clarke (L) and Chen Levy (R) share a smile as they dance their routine.
With a graceful turn of the wheel, Nancy Clarke makes her way across the dance floor in her wheelchair. All the while, she moves her upper body to the music, the passion etched on her face. It’s tough work to balance moving the wheelchair around the room with the graceful dance movements, but Clarke makes it look effortless. The music guides her – it’s what got her into dance in the first place.
“If you’ve got the musicality and you understand the music, the dancing becomes part of it,” she says.
Dance and music have always been a passion for Clarke, even in her younger years when she taught herself how to play the keyboard. She had also always enjoyed going out dancing with friends. So when she heard about wheelchair dance, she knew she had to try it.
“You start out thinking, ‘well I can’t do that, I’m paralyzed from the chest down,’ but you start to realize [how] you can engage muscles,” she says.
Often, as Clarke is spun around by her partner, she has to engage her core and her hips to move herself. She has also seen tremendous benefit. Her posture is better and it has made her daily tasks, like transferring to and from her chair, easier.
Wheelchair dance is an International Paralympic Committee recognized sport. It involves one partner who is in a wheelchair and one partner who is able-bodied. Partnered teams compete with each other in adapted routines that use all of the regimented steps of a ballroom dance competition. While the sport is popular around the world, it is still relatively small in North America. Those involved in wheelchair dance in Canada want to see it grow, not only because it is a great way to exercise, but also because it is an activity that is beneficial for all of those involved.
WHEEL DANCE is the only registered non-profit wheelchair dance group in Canada. They held their first competition this past October. Pushing past barriers and engaging people of all abilities in dance is what drove Iris Kulbatski, executive director of WHEEL DANCE, to start providing dance lessons for those with ambulatory disabilities.
“One of the biggest challenges is getting people to realize [dance is] something they can still do and excel at,” she says.
The steps may be adapted for the partner in the wheelchair, called the sitting partner, but it doesn’t make it any less difficult.
“I have to learn the routine and where I need to be,” Clarke says. The sitting partner is often judged on their hand movements and their sharpness of head, which refers to the preciseness of the movement the dancer makes. “All of those things make your performance look more professional.”
It can be physically taxing as well, even after practicing slower dances, like the rhumba or waltz. “You come home the next day and your arms and back are throbbing,” Clarke says.
What is most apparent, though, is that the dancing is mutually beneficial for both partners. The able-bodied dancer, called the standing partner, sees just as many benefits as the sitting partner. Most of the standing partners are volunteers in the program. For them, it’s a chance to learn ballroom dance with some of the top instructors in Canada.
Chen Levy is a volunteer with WHEEL DANCE and has danced competitively with Clarke. Before joining, he had never danced. He doesn’t even think it’s something he’s particularly good at it as the steps are so precise and often difficult to learn. However, being a part of the wheelchair dance community has made him see the significance of what he does. “I see people’s reactions when they come [in] here and they start dancing,” he says. It can be incredibly worthwhile.
Steve and Laura Surman are partners in dance and life and both have found tremendous benefit from learning to dance. “We really just wanted to get comfortable on the dance floor, competent enough so if somebody throws on a tune, we can have a bit of fun,” says Steve. “Also [we can] show [that] people in chairs can have a bit of fun. All you have to do is learn the basics.”
For Laura, it’s also a way to connect with her husband. He’s active in wheelchair basketball and sledge hockey, but those sports don’t interest Laura. “[Dance] is something we can do together,” she says. “This is our time together.”
As for Clarke, she just wants to keep continually improving so she can one day compete around the world. She practices three times a week, sometimes on her own and sometimes with a partner. Keeping motivated, though, isn’t a problem.
“It doesn’t seem like work. It’s a passion,” she says.
