Published: 25 January, 2008, 07:11
Edited: 25 January, 2008, 07:11
A group of dancers in Ukraine have shown that disability is no barrier to achieving poise and grace on the dancefloor.
Style and artistry are their watchwords. And their sights are set firmly on success in the ballroom. But for a group in Ukraine there's also something special, as they grace the ballroom on wheelchairs.
Ilona Slugovina, World Champion in ballroom dancing twice over, can’t feel her lower limbs at all, but that doesn’t stop her. She can’t rise or fall in the waltz like her able-bodied partners but her moves inspire people in her condition.
When she was three, doctors failed to remove a swelling on her spine and she hasn't walked since.
As it happened so early in her life, she claims to have accepted her disability, and discovered dancing.
“It was difficult and painful at the start. I was fighting through tears to learn certain moves,” Ilona said.
Ilona’s coach, Elena Chizh, had a tragedy of her own, which brought her to wheelchair dancing.
Her son was confined to bed for 11 years. Elena says he moved a little bit when he heard music.
When he died, she started a dance club to help others start feeling.
“I taught some people how to smile here. To most of them their disability is a tragedy. Often their parents keep them away from the world making their life miserable,” Elena said.
Apart from dancing, Ilona Slugovina designs ballroom costumes and sells them in Ukraine.
She’s dating a wheelchair dancer and disapproves of normal men, who have made-up problems.
But she’s good friends with her dancing partner, who is not able-bodied.
“My friends and relatives are somewhat shocked and amazed that I’m dancing with a disabled girl. But it doesn’t bother me. She’s amazing,” Oleksandr Ivanov, Ilona’s partner, said.
For four hours, twice a week, they practice the tango, swing, to get what they call ‘ a feeling of harmony ‘.