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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Niamh Ní Hoireabhaird

‘Like swimming through the air’: my thrilling role in Giselle with the Royal Ballet School’s wheelchair dancers

Multiple people in wheelchairs move dynamically across a gymnasium floor with wooden bleachers behind them
‘Any nervousness I felt suddenly melted away’ … warmup exercises at a wheelchair ballet class in the Royal Ballet School, with Kate Stanforth in blue. Photograph: Maddison Araceli

From ballroom to hip-hop, I tried many different dance classes growing up, but nothing ever stuck for too long. My body never found its rhythm to any music, I quickly became exhausted from any physical exertion, and I concluded I must just not have been made for exercise.

My theory was confirmed when I was 13 – and I was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), which is a rare, progressive neuromuscular disease that causes nerve damage, muscle weakness and mobility loss. Now, aged 29, I use a wheelchair and a lot of my coordination has been eroded. I still love to dance but it’s increasingly rare I get the chance.

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