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American Style Wheelchair Dancing at Universal
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This is a picture of Aubree Marchione, my wheelchair dancing assistant. She is featured on a commercial for the Bank of Madrid, dancing hip hop in a wheelchair. She is also fabulous at all four roles for wheelchair dancers-both able-bodied parts and both wheelchair dancer parts. This picture was taken at a recent fund raiser for a local charity. |
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This picture is of Josh Brownlie, 17, and Stephanie Skumanich, 20, and it was taken at the Philadelphia Festival, April 2006. They were dancing the tango as part of a group performance of American style dances that included Rumba, Viennese Waltz, Tango and cha cha. Josh and Stephanie were part of a performance team of American Style wheelchair dancers who performed for a variety of audiences. |
At Universal Dance Center, we have designed and developed a workable curriculum for wheeelchair dancers and their partners to dance American Style foxtrot, waltz, tango, cha cha, rumba, and swing. The firgures are similar to the social dancing basics that able-bodied dancers learn in a beginners' course of social dancing.
In October of 2006, the studio conducted a teachers' training seminar that presented the dance material, Wheel Ease, along with instructions on how to move a wheelchair in a rhythmic fashion to interpret and express the rhythmic patterns in the dances. Sandra provided complimentary copies of the teachers' technique manual that she wrote and published.
Participating in the seminar were well known, top echelon American coaches Pete Taylor, John and Spencer Nyemchek, Susan Henninger, Tony Scheppler, Brian Fortuna, and wheelchair expert, Aubree Marchione.
Over the past few years, hundreds of wheelchair dancers and partners have learned the social dance material that is based on the innovative curriculum develped by Sandra Fortuna at Universal Dance Center. Many audiences, including able-bodied people and people with disabilities have enjoyed the American style dance technique performed by Sandra's wheelchair dance students. Pictures below were taken at a fund raiser for the Montgomery County Assoc. for the Blind, November 2006. The first 3 pictures below are of the dancers performing a formation of American style foxtrot, waltz, cha cha. The next four are of three of the dancers who performed an exciting hustle with partner exchanges.
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