The founder of Britain’s only all-wheelchair-user professional dance company hopes that the company’s first tour around the country next month will “start a ripple effect” in encouraging more people to realise that they can dance.
The newly formed Propel Dance kicks off its tour amid reports that the producers of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing are keen on adding a wheelchair user as a contestant in the next series. Sophie Morgan, who appears on ITV’s Loose Women, has been tipped for the role.
The group will perform an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen story The Snow Queen in the few venues that have agreed to rip out enough seats to allow more than just a handful of wheelchair users to watch the shows. Most theatres only have space for two or three disabled audience members, which often prevents groups of friends attending together.
The company was founded by Helen Mason, who believes there is a “definite, desperate” need for a company like hers. “There are very few companies in the UK with work for disabled dancers, whereas in Europe and America, it’s huge – so many more opportunities. We’re behind the times.”
Appearances by contestants such as Rose Ayling-Ellis on Strictly have helped raise awareness and understanding of issues around disability. After Ayling-Ellis’s appearances on the BBC show, a survey by the deafblind charity Sense found that 25% of the public had become more interested in the experience of deaf people, with 21% stating they were interested in learning British Sign Language.
Mason says the first time the show featured disabled dancers was “a big moment”.
“For me the ball started rolling when Strictly had Candoco, a company with disabled dancers, perform with the professionals in 2018,” she said. “I just thought: ‘Wow! Disabled dancers on Strictly!’
“We don’t really know what effect it will have if they do have a wheelchair user as a contestant, but it has huge potential for getting wheelchair dance in the public domain and challenging stereotypes.”
Audiences will be asked to pay what they like for the Propel shows, to ensure anyone can attend. Arts Council funding was secured for the tour.
Mason said her first aim was to challenge the idea of what a dancer’s body looks like. “In society we think that Darcey Bussell is what a dancer is: slim, female, long legs,” she said. “And that isn’t the case. Anyone can dance.”
Her second aim is to boost representation so that wheelchair users can go to the theatre and see people like them on stage.
“That’s the other problem: we don’t have a variety of bodies on the stage. I’m hoping the dancers and the audiences have a really good time – and children will come along and say: ‘Oh, that person can dance. I can dance.’ I really hope it will start a ripple.”
One of the performers in The Snow Queen is Joseph Powell-Main. He trained at the Royal Ballet School but sustained injuries to his knees when he was young, which were exacerbated by a car accident. He has since performed with the Royal Ballet and other companies, using crutches or a wheelchair.
“It’s really important that we change people’s perception,” Powell-Main said. “A lot of the time when I’m working, I come up against a lot of imposed judgements of ‘you’re a wheelchair-user so you can only do this’. And I think having a cast that is all wheelchair users is going to be a big statement.”
