How do you do the moon walk without legs?
You may think that in order to dance you need legs, eyes and ears, but it turns out a sense of rhythm and a love for dance enables disabled people to dance, too.
Eliashiv Raichner, Maariv | 10/4/2013
Tags: dance, waltz.
The dancers in the sport hall of Washington Hill, on their way to get the certificate that gave them the authority to be dance instructors, were accompanied by rapturous applause. The volume of the applause was especially loud when those who got the certificate were wheelchair bound. And that happened more than once: more than half the graduates of the unique dance instruction for populations with special needs, that ended two weeks ago, suit this definition. Aliza who has cerebral palsy, Rafy, the double amputee, Judith, the polio survivor, Savion, who has severe sight impairments: they are all now dance instructors.
And this dance, the wheelchair dance, is a miracle one must behold in one's own eyes. Every attendee of the graduation ceremony, which featured dances graduating from this course, and other dance groups, would easily notice that wheelchair bound dancers can spread their wings. Whether for its symbolism, or not- the opening dance was to the sound of the song "free and happy". The excited faces of the sitting dancers (professional term for wheelchair bound dancers) showed the audience that physical disability is not an obstacle to happiness.
Unique choreography for movement and dance for wheelchair bound dancers. From the graduation ceremony of dance instructors for special needs. Photography: Edy Israel
You are staying here
One of the happy women in the sports hall was Aliza Havusha, 32, who was born with cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound. Havusha, who also has vision impairments, traces her love for dance to one evening nine years ago, when her father asked her while strolling down the street what was her dream. Havusha, who had managed to finish an undergraduate degree in education by then, said that dance is something she can only but imagine, and she misses greatly. At home, when her father opened the newspaper, he was surprised to discover an ad for a dance class for wheelchair bound people in Herzeliya.
The two went to check out the new class, but Aliza did not like the atmosphere. Shortly after she tried again, this time, she went to Rishon Wheels, a well known and long running class for disabled dancers in Rishon LeZion. That is where her turning point occurred. "The instructor Galit Cohen- Hayim", says Havusha, "threw me straight into the deep end and told me to join the circle, and I'll be ok. I am a brave woman so I did, and I never left that circle since".
Dance for disabled dancers takes place in pairs; one dancer sitting on a wheelchair and the other, upright, accompanies them in the dance. "In the beginning I danced with my father", says Havusha, "and I continued to do so with anyone who was willing to dance. For four and a half years I did not have a permanent partner. For lack of partners one of the dancers thought of leaving the class, and I thought of following. I went up to Galit, the instructor, and told her about my intention to leave but she said 'you are staying here. Wait a while, and your partner will arrive'".
Havusha stayed on and continued to dance with different partners. At some point auditions for the representative company of Rishon Lezion, "Rishon Wheels", took place. Rishon Wheels is the biggest wheelchair dance company in Israel, celebrated in Israel and abroad. "Before the auditions I went to talk with Orly Baor, the company director, and told her I may not be suited for the company now, but I'd like to hear her opinion nonetheless. Orly heard me out and agreed, but promised to invite me as guest artist to the new company's ensemble first performance.
In the show, that took place in the Rishon Lezion Cultural Hall, Havusha danced alongside a professional dancer to the score of "someone is always by my side". In the audience there was a "standing" dancer from Herzeliya who was seeking a sitting down partner.
"After the dance he came up to me and suggested being my standing partner, and we've been dancing for seven years since" remembers Havusha.
Havusha danced with her partner not only in Rishon Lezion but in other classes across Israel too, and fell in love with wheelchair dance. At some point her dance partner decided to join a course certifying instructors for wheelchair dancers. "friends said, 'if your partner gains a certificate, why don't you do the same?' and I said it was not for me" says Havusha. "One day Orly Baor came up to me and suggested I enroll in the course. I said no at first, but then came round, signed up and I don't regret that decision. The course has advanced me more than I could ever have imagined".
Photography: Eddy Israel. From the graduation ceremony; dances take place in pairs.
ג'קסון על גלגליםMichael Jackson on wheels
One of the most prominent dancers in the graduation ceremony was Rafy Avital, who stole the show when he danced Michael Jackson style alongside a young air force officer. Avital, 68, has atherosclerosis and has been a double amputee for 17 years. Before his legs were amputated he worked as a quality control supervisor in the steel industry. Since he has become disabled he spends his time writing poetry, collecting stamps, writing on facebook, solving cryptic crosswords and visiting his family.
Avital is divorced, father of two and grandfather of one grandchild, was exposed to dance while he was active in an disabled rehabilitation club in Rishon Lezion. "I am a very energetic person, and the director of the rehabilitation center noticed that. One day, ten years ago, she came up to me and suggested I watch wheelchair dance. I didn't understand how an amputee can dance, but I decided to go and dance. I came, I saw, and became addicted. Since then I have been dancing non-stop and with ever-increasing vigor".
Avital sees dance as the love of his life. He has been a member of "Rishon Wheels" for four years, and especially love flamenco style or Michael Jackson style solos. "Without dance I would have stayed at home, feel sorry for myself, expect others to feel sorry for me, degenerate and deteriorate. Dance raises me up, and thanks to dance I discover the abilities I didn't know I had. I am a sporty type, and that expresses itself in my abilities too. I reached a standard I did not expect I would reach. Today I can't see myself not dancing, as dance runs through my veins. I caught the bug, and I can't let go. Through dance I connect with special people and am in good company, including the 'standing' dancers alongside us".
Four months ago Avital joined the disabled dancers instructors course. Every week he went to GIvat Washington for four hours of teaching and dancing. "the course upgraded my dancing abilities and my knowledge. I knew how to dance beforehand, but I went back to basics. First I had a permanent standing dance partner, but she had to quit due to medical reasons, so I switched partners occasionally and reached the conclusion that this is even preferable, since when you are set upon one partner only, if they are unable to dance for any reason, you are facing a dead end".
Now, that he has an instructor's certificate, Avital certainly dreams of the next stage. "If I have a standing dance partner, I hope to start my own course. When I'm sat in a wheelchair I don't have enough spatial grasp as am lower than the dancing circle. I can't instruct the standing dancers, as their steps are different and more complicated. A standing partner can help with that, and I'd be delighted to start my own course and give back some of what I've learnt".
Rehabilitation potential
The convener of wheelchair dance and the "mother" of dance classes and companies is Orly Baor, dancer and folk dancing teacher, graduate of Physical Education, rehabilitation and dance therapy. 59 year old Baor was exposed to wheelchair dance 27 years ago, and made it her life's work. One evening she saw on TV disabled people moving to the sound of music and was enthused by that idea. As a graduate of movement therapy she understood the power of dance as a mechanism for rehabilitation, and decided to further that. She arrived with the idea to get disabled people dancing at the office of Josef Lutenberg, chairman of IDF Disabled People Council, who also managed Beit Halohem center for IDF disabled combatants at that time. Lutenberg, she says, was skeptical. He was hesitant to believe that disabled people would take part in activity of such kind, requiring collaboration of a standing partner.
Lutenberg wasn't the only person who approached the idea with disbelief. But Baor instated, and with great effort found wheelchair bound dancers and joined them with standing dancers. She developed a method for rehabilitation through dance, including a uniquely suited choreography for dance and movement on wheelchairs. Throughout the years she developed that strand further.
The first company she founded in the 1980s was "Hora Wheels", performed nationally and internationally. The performance of the company in the Karmiel Dance Festival gave the company a standing ovation from tens of thousands of spectators. Over the years Baor also founded a company for wheelchair ballroom dance, which represented Israel in international contests in Europe, and won several medals.
In 2002 Baor founded a center for instruction for wheelchair dance in Rishon Lezion, and the following year she founded with Shimon Keinan, the chair of Ilan in the city, the "Rishon Lezion wheels" company, which became the largest company for wheelchair dance in Israel and internationally.
Eight years ago, after founding various classes and companies, Baor decided to extend the project further. "The goal was to keep the uniformity of the language", she says. "I wanted content to be uniform across Israel, so that when the various groups meet, they have a common language, same terms and same dances".
הריקוד מרים למעלה. מתוך טקס הסיום צילום: אדי ישראל
The first instructors' course for special needs started under the auspices of the Kibbutz Seminar. Graduates of this course started other courses across Israel, other disabled people joined the circles of dancers, and Baor started thinking of the next challenge. "The accomplishments that disabled people achieve in dance and their ability to become part of everything led me to think that there's no reason for not including disabled dancers in the next course, so they can be instructors themselves. The dances come from their body and soul, and who can instruct better than them- if they get the right tool kit".
Three years ago, in a ceremony in Rishon Lezion, Baor announced her intention to include disabled dancers in the instructors' course. In response, Keinan and the Mayor of Rishon Lezion committed to getting funding for scholarships for disabled dancers who will participate in the course. The idea materialized over three years. Yaki Sa'ada, chair of the Education Center in Givat Washington, and Sheilo Katz, chair of the movement education unit in the Center, decided to rise to the challenge; last year a course for dance instructors for special needs population was founded.
The course, run by Baor and Edna Kave, is funded by National Security which supported the idea. "National Security representatives", says Baor, "were impressed and understood that there is potential also in rehabilitation. Also in training disabled people for various occupations, and generally- anything that allows them to successfully take part in communal life. In fact, National Security "bought" the course from Givat Washington, and its scholarships allowed for a large course with 27 students, half of whom considered with special needs themselves.
Baor says that many of the disabled students struggled during the course. "There was a large discrepancy between the participants at the beginning of the course, although most of whom had some experience, as everyone came from a different world. The discrepancy was gone during the course thanks to the help and support that all participants gave each other and the seriousness in which they took their studies. In the beginning people were frustrated and unsure of themselves and their abilities to count steps and learn concepts. Dance is a foreign language which is hard to teach to those standing up. In the beginning there was a big of a lethargic atmosphere, but I decided that we are unstoppable and we will do everything we can to help them graduate. The well versed instructors joined in, and the folks started coming three hours before we started classes to dance and practice. That brought them to a very high standard in the practical exams and the average of 9, extraordinary in all courses. I too was surprised at the results".
Can the sitting down dancers instruct those who are standing up?
"Naturally, most dances taught are for pairs, hence there is always a dancer standing up and a dancer sitting. Thus a standing and sitting dancers always learn together. Graduates of this course learnt the roles of the standing dancers, but obviously instruction requires team work. Just as the sitting dancer never dances alone, the standing dancer doesn't have to be an instructor. Unqualified dancers can aid with that. I have no doubt that the tools given to the sitting dancers will lead them in the future to better understand the language of the standing dancers. This is a point that with time will develop and further, we have only just begun".
Photography: Eddy Israel. Rehabilitation potential. From the graduation ceremony
I started flying
Ora Heikis belongs to the "standing" group of the last course. She lives in Mazkeret Batya, teaches Physical Education and Folk Dancing. She arrived at the last course following a recommendation from a friend. "The world of disabled dance was totally foreign to me, and I didn't imagine that it would fascinate me so much. I didn't know there was dance suited especially for wheelchair bound people, and I didn't imagine I could ever learn that dance. It is a whole world. You first learn the "standing" dancers' steps, then you see how the "sitting" dancers progress in space, when they turn around and when they lift their hands. As opposed to folk dancing, in which you only learn one part, in this course you learn two parts".
Do you not feel uncomfortable to move freely near those who have limited movement capacity?
"you don't think about it when you're dancing with them. From the first moment you are used to the fact that you are standing and they are sitting and everyone has their part. It is true that we have more possibilities, and that is why the role of those who make the dances suited for disabled dancers is so vital. They think how to make the sitting dancers active with us, how they progress in space so that we don't tread upon them and they not on us. In the end of the day, sitting dancers don't only sit and roll forward. They have a role in every one of our movements".
The course was Haikis' first acquaintance with people who have special needs. "Meeting them opened my eyes to a world I didn't know. I got sucked into it. I discovered amazing dancers who have a lot of vitality and are fun dancing partners. I can now say in this kind of dance you gain much more than you give.".
The 90 hour long course requires a practical experience component. Haikis chose to perform hers in "Rany Wheels", a disabled dance class in Nes Ziona, where she was put with a sitting dancer who became her permanent dance partner. Now, even though she has finished this practical component of her course, she dances there every week with her sitting partner. Her life partner, lawyer Eli Haikis, caught the dance bug too, and he intends to join the next course.
For Yehudit Pinhas, dance was a way to recognize her disability. She was born in the 1950s and was affected by Polio when she was only one year old. She functioned normally nevertheless, and says she never felt different. After vocational training she worked as an instructor for arts and crafts, and then entered the world of welfare and started coaching girls who come from troubled backgrounds.
A decade ago her condition worsened and she started needing the assistance of crutches and various aids to walk. "Even when I worsened", she says, "I repressed my disability and refused to put myself in that category. About nine years ago friends suggested I watch a performance of wheelchair dance in Nes Ziona and I was exhilarated. I told one of my friends how amazing it is that people dance while being wheelchair bound. I didn't see myself as part of this project, but then that friend said "sorry, are you not disabled?". Only then I realized I was there too.
Pinhas started coming to the classes in Nes Ziona, and says she enjoyed a joyful and merry atmosphere. "I was sat on a chair in the circle and since then I dance and don't give up. Participating in the dance classes was my recognition of my disability. It was like psychological therapy for me. Only there I started realizing that I may have a disability and difficulty, but I can go ahead and dance".
At some point Orly Baor came to the class Pinhas was taking part to recruit participants for the instructors' course she started. Pinhas decided to join in. "This course opened many channels for me. It forced me to open up and it gave me confidence and fly. I found myself amidst a circle, teaching, instructing, and explaining to those around me. This enriched my life and gave me a deep understanding of dance and music. You don't only dance, but deconstruct the dance and understand counts and movements, and that is simply amazing.
The deepest impression ingrained in me was when dance instructor Avi Peretz and his wife came to our course, and demonstrated the dance for the standing dancers. The amazing thing was that Orly, while we were dancing, managed to suit the dance for sitting dancers".
"Dance comes from the soul" standing up: Oren Haikis, Savion David, Orly Baor. Sitting down: Aliza Havusha, Rafi Avital, Yehudit Pinhas. Photography: Eddy Israel. צילום: אדי ישראל
Dancing from memory
אחד הסיפורים הייחודיים בקורס המדריכים שייך לסביון דויד – בן שלושים, תושב נשר, מסוגל
One of the unique stories in the instructors' course belongs to Savion David- thirty years old, resident of Nesher. He can only see with one eye for two meters distance. Seven years ago he started dancing in visually impaired dance class in Jerusalem and then in Haifa and Rishon Lezion. He then danced as a lone visually impaired dancer in a regular dance class. Six months ago Baor invited him to join her course. "After a two hour conversation", says David, "we arranged we decide. Two weeks later I sent my CV and got a positive response".
The difficulties that Savion faced, as the only visually impaired dancer in the course, were different to those of his wheelchair bound friends. "I had to compensate for my difficulties in seeing in other ways", he says. "My dance is based on memory. I can learn a dance by heart, close my eyes and dance it without music".
Another challenge that David had to face was an operation he had during the course. In the last few weeks of the course he had blurry vision for short distances too, in which he usually has no difficulty. In the final exam, in front of six external examiners, he arrived with blurred vision, and yet passed it with a distinction. Now he dreams of opening a class for visually impaired dancers which he will instruct.
"Savion's story gives proportions for life" says Baor. "This guy arrived with persistence once a week from Nesher to Givat Washington, by bus and train."He kept at the dance, did not give up, and during the course already bought equipment and software allowing him to start his own dance class".
Baor believes that her graduates will be able to fulfill their training and teach others. "We already have one sitting graduate who teaches disabled children with a "standing" dancer in classes in Hod Hasharon and Rishon Lezion. It is a process that is only just beginning, but I have no doubt it will get stronger and stronger".
Baor testifies that she thinks ceaselessly of new ideas to further disabled dance. "My world is this field, my brain is constantly occupied with new ideas and inventions. I'd love to reach every disabled who is still sitting at home- of any age and any disability, who hasn't been exposed to the world of dance for populations with special needs. I'd love for every disabled person to hear of this possibility, and to have a nearby space for dance and joy".
sofash@maariv.co.il