A Visionary Event
The 2009 IDSF World DanceSport Championship Latin in Maribor, SLO, takes up on the federation's VISION 2012 in the most outstanding way. Not only does it combine Latin with Boogie Woogie – it runs concurrently with a Boogie Woogie World Cup held under the auspices of the World Rock ‘n’ Roll Confederation – it also includes the performances by dancers with a disability. The Slovenian hosts thus adhere to the spirit of the cooperation agreement signed between IDSF and the International Paralympic Committee in October 2008.
Embedded into the 7 November evening schedule of the 2009 World DanceSport Championship Latin are demonstrations by:
Roberto Girolami and Alessia La Parola, ITA
Roberto and his seeing partner Alessia show a “Latin Mix.” Roberto, 64, is blind of retinitis pigmentosa since the age of ten. Today, he works as a full-time trainer for DanceSport athletes with a disability and promotes “Se mi aiuti ballo anch’io!” (If you
help me, I can dance too!) – his own project which brought disabled dancers to FIDS-sanctioned Italian Championships for the first time this year.
Step ‘n’ Roll
Step ‘n’ Roll includes people in electric and manual wheelchairs and their able-bodied partners. The group had a number of performances accross Slovenia during 2008, the most important being the performance in Kranjska Gora. It represented the country for the first time in international Wheelchair DanceSport competition in Cuijk, NED, in April 2009.
Maxim Sedakov and Svetlana Kukushkina, RUS
The Russian couple (pictured above) won – amongst many other competitions – this year’s Platja d’Aro Wheelchair DanceSport Open in Spain. They show a “Latin Mix” in Maribor. Click here to watch the two in action!
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