Ballet For Blind: The Royal Ballet Offers Dance Classes For The Blind

Sense of rhythm, swift movements and feet-hand-eye coordination are required in most dance forms, more so In Ballet where all the grace lies in the synchronized dance steps. For visually challenged people it is impossible to observe others and respond accordingly, However The Royal Ballet is breaking this stereotype with its ballet for blind venture.

According to the Dance Magazine, The Royal London Ballet has been organizing the Monday Moves classes for the visually challenged people. The participants belong to various age groups and have full or partial visual imparity. The dance sessions consist of a mix of barre and centre work along with some weight sharing and partnering workouts.

The Monday Moves are far from being just a feel good community class as the students have to go through rigorous sessions of training and performing their best dance moves. Veteran soloist David Pickering is in charge of the classes that take place at the rehearsal studio.

According to the Royal Opera House, It has been more than 25 years that they have been challenging the notion that dancing is for people who can see. As per them, the Corps de Ballet requires every member to move together in a synchronized way to make it look perfect and it is a complete team effort, irrespective of whether the participants have vision issues or not. 'It was an experiment to see if visually impaired people could do ballet,' explains Maggie, one of the founding members of Monday Moves.

The participants of Monday Moves have never witnessed anything close to this. Many of them have attended other dance classes but were not able to follow the instructors due to their blindness. Going by the French terminology of ballet, the Monday Moves participants share a unique movement language that enables them to respond more accurately to the vocal instructions.

The Royal Ballet with its Monday Moves classes is opening new horizons in the world of dance. Their encouragement will motivate more such artists to come forward and pursue their passion confidently.

TagsBallet, Dance, The Royal Ballet, Blind Dance, Royal Opera House, London