I began working with the students of BLENNZ (Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand) at the start of Term 1 this year, 2025. This is the first time I have had the pleasure of delivering my program to a community of tamariki with higher needs and I am loving the experience. Too often we as a society hold a preconception that individuals with physical disabilities cannot participate in dance, but my approach is that every BODY can dance no matter what ability or disability is present.
As a teacher in this space, I have my bag of tricks and quick creative mind to assess what exercises will be most engaging to my students. In one space where I work with non-verbal students with vision impairment as well as physical immobility, we shift from attempting to teach by displaying movement visually, to a more hands on approach where we assist our students in becoming familiar with their own body awareness by helping them move their arms, hands, legs and feet. The mind to muscle connection is activated, and these previously dormant extremities are used in a rhythmic motion dancing to the music they can hear. Each student has a set of 'wheels' to cruise around the room to the beat, with the help of our awesome support staff. I guide them through patterns and pathways in our dance space, often using objects for 'judder bars' for them to drive over or bump into, so our students get that 'off roading' feeling with a small jolt and change of pace along the way. This always gets a smile, at the excitement of something out of the everyday wheeling from point to point. We do circles, zigzags, reversing and forward and back movement with two students facing each other so they come closer to interact then reverse away. As vision is low, we rely on the senses of touch and aural stimulation. Props have been a great way to get our students to move independently, holding an object like a pool noodle as a drum beat maker, or for our slower tracks, chiffon scarves that the students can grip easily and move about at their own will. The colours are bright so that what little vision they have can catch moments of the object moving through the air about them. We have one fiercly independent student who prefers to move her arms independently as opposed to the teacher helping. If we select the right song - we will know about it! This student can move her arms in her own way and vocalise her enjoyment with her own 'woo hoo's' and excited sounds which is a great encouragement to myself as a facilitator and also the support staff who work with these students day in day out and know their communication cues well.
We also use body percussion with claps, slaps on the wheelchair table attachement, and high fives or taps with others. Tin containers and buckets were a hit today where we as a team created our own drum line beat and counted down to finish the sequence in unison! Big smiles all round after completing that exercise.
In the second class I work with a different group of students who are both verbal and more physically able, with higher functioning visual abilities and more minor impairment. In this class we create an obstacle course for our warm up and do more fitness and sporting movement for their physical outlet. They have the songs they know dances to already, so we play those and they become my teacher, showing off their cool moves for me. We incorporate football skills with kicks and passes and are building the confidence and courage to attempt headers. This lot are more rough and tumble so we use that to the advantage of the class and use the pool noodles for 'light saber battles' and also to bang against the inflated beach balls in the room. I bring my light weight dumbbells for this class full of boys and take them through some strength training exercises, which they love and instantly show interest, following along easily. My challenge in this space is to achieve the attention span for structured dance movement which they are physically capable of, and the right song will help activate them to achieve this!
My plans going forward are to build my prop inventory with more exciting objects that create all sorts of noises and others with varied textures as our sense of touch will be the main activator to enhance these sessions. I look forward on reflecting on further developments as our delivery continues.
Feedback:
"The physical components have promoted enthusiasm in our learners during the session and we often get asked when hip hop is. We have seen our learners be proud of themselves and what they are doing. We have seen confidence in socialising and participating. We are also seeing more willingness in trying new things."
Codie D, Scott Point Satellite.
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