Foreword dancetools
Voorwoord:
When I search for "sports with visual impairment" on Google, I come across various sports, but nowhere do I find anything about dance for people with visual impairments. Despite my search on different websites, both in Belgium and beyond, I am surprised to find hardly any information about "dancing for the blind and visually impaired." How is it that dance seems almost nonexistent for people with visual challenges in Belgium and even throughout Europe? Why has no one explored this seemingly feasible possibility before?
Immediately, numerous reasons come to mind:
It requires significant organization, commitment, education, evolution, and perseverance to address these questions. A political climate must exist where this new challenge in sport and art is embraced.
Dance for youth must receive more attention.
Parents must find their way to a wide range of dance forms.
People with visual impairments must take the initiative to carve their own path in the world of dance.
Blind and visually impaired individuals must strive for their own identity within the age-old dance landscape, a task that has not been seriously undertaken before.
Inclusivity:
For those who love movement, dancing, especially partner dancing, is an immensely enriching sports experience. Sports inherently represent absolute inclusivity, where religious, cultural, and other differences become irrelevant when people work together towards a common goal. Inclusivity means a world where values, knowledge, and capacities are utilized by and for everyone, striving for a beautiful and harmonious diverse society. The King Baudouin Foundation shares these values and norms and is therefore committed to inclusive dancing under the motto #everyonecandance.
New Energy:
How? In my opinion, two things are crucial:
Utilizing classically structured and trained dance knowledge as a foundation, using age-old dance techniques for aesthetic sports at a high level.
Exploring new forms of aesthetic movement, sports, and dance for people with visual impairments, employing other senses, such as touch, to achieve a synergy of dance aesthetics, dance sport, and dance ethics.
I am convinced that this task must also be developed by the blind and visually impaired themselves. Currently, the primary task of well-trained trainers lies in shaping both blind or visually impaired dancers and trainers.
Innovation as a Social Goal:
The creation of new dance forms, emphasizing the integration and inclusion of new dance techniques provided by people with visual impairments, is of great importance. On a global scale, there is almost no connection in dance between sighted, partially sighted, and blind individuals. The inclusive objectives of dance, particularly partner dancing, aim at 100% social integration, highlighting the significance of this research and work.
We can ask whether blind and visually impaired people need inclusive sports opportunities. In my experience, people who became blind or visually impaired due to an eye condition feel a greater need for this than those born blind. The vast majority of people with an eye condition, in my opinion, feel the necessity to remain connected to the sighted world. People born blind may feel less of this need because their body awareness is often higher. However, they too increasingly seek new developments within their own identity, striving to emphasize their uniqueness confidently. Therefore, it seems extremely important to me that we as trainers motivate people from a young age, at a very early stage, to work on greater motor intelligence.
A learning process from both sides is necessary, as with any form of striving for inclusivity. A learning curve where we can discover, explore, enjoy, have fun, stay healthy, and simply have a good time together.
Dance and Art:
The constant question of whether dance falls under sports or culture has existed for as long as I can remember. Is dance a sport or an art? The answer is clear, but it is difficult to categorize. Dance is both a sporty and artistic expression. Movement in harmony has both athletic and aesthetic value. Dance is therefore by definition 100% inclusive. The boundary between sport and art in this discipline is vague and overlaps. How perfect is that? #danceisinclusion. I emphasize that dance can be of great value to the blind and visually impaired audience.
Why? Many blind and visually impaired people have an innate love for music that seems to be part of their DNA. From an early age, a lot of attention is paid to this, and it is noticeable that this community has already made significant strides in the field of music. In my experience with the blind, I often encounter the same abilities. Language, for example—learning languages, speaking languages, valuing beautiful language use—plays an important role in the interests of blind and visually impaired people. Playing with language, exploring, and reading it brings this group, in my opinion, great joy.
For music, I think it goes even further. In this research, we let them judge that better themselves.
A few questions linger in my mind: How seamlessly does dance fit with music? Isn’t dance the ultimate challenge for every blind music lover? Isn’t dance another language to express "putting into motion what one hears"?
Music can certainly be used as the ideal motivation for anyone who wants to move more with their own body.
Conclusion: The artistic nature of dance sport can create a greater interest in dance among blind or visually impaired people.
A Task for Trainers:
How do we approach this in the future?
Creating awareness and establishing a safe platform. Increasing visibility—spreading the offer of dance sports for the blind and visually impaired through shows, demonstrations, and events (digital and in-person).
Igniting motivation among the blind or visually impaired audience through music and presenting achieved results. Striving for accessibility comparable to disability policies in Belgium, including for dance or gymnastics.
Knowledge transfer—training trainers to become trainers.
Accepting dance as a full-fledged sport. Continued efforts must be made to correct the stereotype that dance trainers are "less athletic" than, for example, football trainers.
With this writing, we aim to:
Develop a triptych for the #danceisblind Project Call "Visual Impairment & Inclusion" by the King Baudouin Foundation.
Provide dance lessons to the blind and visually impaired.
In a recreational setting where the blind and visually impaired fully or partially participate in inclusive dance within regular dance lessons.
Train sighted trainers.
Innovation: train blind dancers to become trainers with two goals:
Help other blind dancers with dance tasks. Allow sighted individuals to develop new haptic dance sensory elements.
Raising awareness through communication.
Making the blind aware of the many benefits of dancing, gymnastics, and sports.
Informing sighted people about the possibilities of dance for the blind and visually impaired.
Building a bridge between two worlds by harmoniously seeking new dance techniques, through shows, demonstrations, dance performances in the media, on the street, at major events, and festivals.
Creating dance tools, developing aids that can help the blind and visually impaired dancer in their desire to learn to dance, move, and play sports.
Through dance objects.
Through audio.
We will work on these objectives in the coming year, with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation. It is a privilege for me to have been entrusted with this confidence. I hope this will serve as a catalyst for many innovations, much knowledge, and stemming from a passion for "the movement of humanity in its entirety."
Image Description
photo 1: Logo of the King Baudouin Foundation.
photo 2: Michèle and Jeannine hold a stretched resistance band at shoulder height while Laure stands in the middle. They practice shoulder shimmies, a rapid vibrating movement of the shoulders, a fundamental movement in various dance styles.
photo 3: The magnet board with two types of footprints representing leaders and followers.
photo 4: A woman holds up a board to feel how she should position her steps.
video 1: Larissa and Ibrahim use the table as a reference point to perform the salsa figure "the enchufla," in the absence of a barre. However, the preference is for the barre.
