On February 11, 2023, we organized our first experiment with the dance boards, where we received valuable input from Roger.
Roger shares his story: "I was born in Mol in 1959 and have had vision problems since kindergarten. Despite that, I was able to cycle independently until I was 20. Since then, I have ridden a tandem, one of my main hobbies, along with swimming and playing the guitar. I also played torball competitively for thirty years and worked my entire career as a telephone and reception clerk at the FOD Finance in Hasselt."
Now, with the support of the King Baudouin Foundation, our research with the boards officially begins, and it’s time to share our findings digitally.
On February 11, 2023, we organized a public research day on the boards, with a total of 8 blind and visually impaired participants.
Video 1: The first video shows Roger in the polyvalent hall of VGC Comenius in Koekelberg. The hall, with an area of 250 square meters, is almost perfectly square. The floor is covered with beautifully varnished parquet, there is a mirror wall, and the remaining walls are covered with black drapes. An excellent audio system provides the acoustics.
I gave Roger two boards. Board 1 is a magnetic board with magnetic feet, presented on a square. Board 2 is a rectangular wooden board with pasted feet. With board 1, Roger can orient himself in the space because both the room and the board are square. This allows him to precisely indicate his position in the space using the feet on the board. For example, if I say, "Roger, turn 90 degrees from this wall to that wall," he can do this using the board.
Video 2: In this video, I give Roger board 2 and show it to the camera before handing it over to him. Board 2 represents the salsa figure "coca-cola," a combination of footwork divided over 8 beats. The board has 7 feet, although most salsa figures have 6 steps over 8 beats. The board also has a hole at the top to indicate the direction of the figure, the space, and the board.
The exercise goes from bottom to top, with the left hole at the top indicating the direction of the figure, the space, and the board. The first 4 steps are clear for Roger, but from the 5th step, it becomes more challenging. As a trainer, I need to be aware of my visual focus and recognize that Roger's questions and his way of understanding might be more effective than my answers.
To better guide Roger, we consider talking about the dancer's shoulders. If I were to say, "Roger, turn your left shoulder back, away from the figure, and your right shoulder forward," he would likely stay in the same dance line. The video shows that, without this instruction, he performs 5 steps with the left side of his body and only switches to the right at step 6.
When evaluating the video, questions arise as to whether earlier instructions would have enabled Roger to perform the movement correctly on his own. Sometimes, it is helpful to let people discover things on their own. It’s a balance that we need to find as trainers.
In the last few seconds of the video, you see Roger finally execute the figure perfectly. It shows the challenges and concentration required from both the blind dancer and the sighted trainer. The communication barrier is overcome, and the understanding between us is perfect.