Three years ago, I welcomed a dance instructor to our Fred Astaire team who had experience teaching dance to individuals in wheelchairs. It’s a major sport in the rest of the world, but it had yet to catch on here in the United States.
When this instructor joined our team, I posted on social media about the potential to create a program for individuals interested in learning to dance in their wheelchairs. We heard quickly from a lovely woman, Cheryl Angelelli, who was a Champion Paralympic swimmer and had seen the sport of wheelchair dance during her global travels for the Paralympics. She wanted in, so we welcomed her to the studio.
And from there, our Dance Mobility program was born.
Sometimes, it just takes one person, one desire, one idea, and then things snowball and grow. That’s what has happened with our Dance Mobility program.
Cheryl is, of course, a mastermind at social networking and promotions, so it helped us grow the program. Thanks to her position in public relations for the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, she helped us secure funding and launch a formal program, which is growing by the day.
As any entrepreneur might agree, this wasn’t necessarily something we’d ever intended to create or make such a big part of our business. And yet, once it began, and it started to grow, we were off to the races. There was no stopping us!!
Today, our studio is known among Fred Astaire dance studios nationwide as having a thriving Dance Mobility program, and we are beginning to train other studio owners in how to launch a program of their own.
You never know … it may not be long before the United States ballroom dance scene includes a vibrant wheelchair dance component, with us leading the charge.
Dream it, and it can happen.