Wheelchair dance classes on the way
WHEELCHAIR dance classes are being held to find the sport’s next star.
Louise Bowman is to start inclusive and wheelchair dance classes in Caerphilly and Bridgend after being “blown out of the water” while watching the sport.
By teaching the para-sport, Louise hopes users will benefit from the physical activity and also see mental health benefits.
Director of Impetus Dance Community Interest Company, Louise, 44, from Pencoed, said: “I went to a competition of the sport a couple of years ago and I saw a dance by a couple.
“They were what’s called a combicouple so there is one ‘able-bodied’ person and one disabled person.
“I was absolutely blown out of the water by it. I just thought it was beautiful.”
Mum of two Louise has decided to start up classes which will be the first of their kind in Wales.
Louise, who also works as an occupational therapist for the NHS, hopes the classes will have real benefits for disabled people’s lives.
She said: “I wanted to try dancing because there are so many therapeutic benefits to it. Physically it is very good for you, and mentally also.”
Louise added: “Of course it was absolutely lovely that in years to come we could produce some champions.
“Hopefully we can find that star here.”
Impetus Dance is associated to the Wheelchair Dance Sport Association (WDSA), which aims to promote and develop wheelchair dancing as a sport and leisure activity.
Although the sport is popular in in other parts of the world, Louise feels it has yet to take off in the UK.
Louise said: “I think because the WDSA are a new charity and it’s a fairly new sport in Wales.
“It has been around since the 1970s and it’s big in America and Europe, but it didn’t really take off in Wales.
“But it has increased in the last 10 years or so, and now we are really trying to get the word out here.”
She added: “All of the dances are adopted for people with different needs.
“Week by week we will run different dance styles to try and keep it all a bit different, from ballroom to salsa and everything in between.”
Louise added that the group will also try to introduced more modern street dance to the classes.
The classes will run from Wednesday, June 7, from 1pm to 2pm at the Penyrheol Community Centre, Penyrheol, Caerphilly.
Classes in Bridgend will run from Friday, June 9 from 10.30am to 11.30am at the Higher Coity Community Centre, Heol West Plas, Bridgend. Both classes are for adults of any ability and will run during school term time only.
Louise hopes to also start classes by September in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot and Cardiff.