Wisconsin para dancers compete in world championship

Earlier this month, four dancers from Wisconsin competed at the World Para Dance Sport competition in Detroit.

Para dancing, sometimes called wheelchair dancing, is a competitive sport for athletes with physical disabilities in their lower limbs. It originated in the 1960s in Sweden, where the first competition was held in 1975. Since then, most of the international para dancing competitions have taken place in Europe. 

This year was the first time the official world championship was held in the United States.

“It was historic,” Martha Siravo said in an interview for WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”

Siravo was one of the four dancers representing Wisconsin at the event.

Siravo was introduced to para dancing at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Brookfield after being crowned Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin 2020. At the time, Brookfield had the only studio in Wisconsin that was fully equipped to offer dance instruction adapted for wheelchair users. Siravo wanted to change that. 

“I saw that there was a need to support para dancing specifically in Wisconsin … and to be able to showcase the dancers who are out there doing it,” she said.

In 2022, Siravo founded Wheels & Heels, a Madison-based organization that provides resources and training to support the para dancing community. 

This year, one of Wheels & Heels’ goals was to secure funding to send dancers to the competition in Detroit. It was able to do so with the support of two sponsors: Wispact, a nonprofit that manages trusts for people with disabilities, and Ki Mobility, a wheelchair manufacturer in Stevens Point.

Competitive para dancing features a variety of styles, including ballroom dances like waltz and foxtrot, Latin American dances like samba and cha-cha, and “freestyle” performances incorporating other genres such as ballet or hip-hop.

For the competitions, para dancers can compete “combi” style with a standing partner or “duo” style, where both partners are in wheelchairs.

A younger generation of para dancers

Eve Dahl is a high school junior and para dancer from Burlington who competed in the junior division at this year’s championship. She is currently ranked second in the world among para dancers in the junior division and sixth in the world in “combi” freestyle.

Like Siravo, Dahl got her start in para dancing at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Brookfield.

“My parents heard about (the program), but they were like, ‘She’s only 9. She’s not gonna want to dance with a boy,’” Dahl recalled with a laugh. “But then I heard about it, and I was like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this?’ So I went to one of the classes, and I fell in love with it.”

In 2022, Dahl signed up for her first competition thinking it would just be for fun.

“I really wasn’t heading into it with big expectations,” she said. “So when I placed, I kind of surprised myself.”

That was also when a visiting head coach encouraged Dahl to compete overseas. So over the past two years, she has competed in para dancing events in Europe. Last year, she was the youngest competitor at the official world championships in Italy.

This year, Dahl was excited to attend the world championship in her home country with fellow para dancers from Wisconsin and a bigger crowd to cheer her on.

Looking to the future, Dahl said she plans to keep para dancing.

“I want to own my own studio one day,” she said. “I’m really hoping to make it my career and my life focus.”

Advocating for para dancing in the Paralympics

Although it is an established sport that is growing in popularity, para dancing is not currently included in the Summer Paralympics.

After seeing the introduction of breakdancing in this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, Siravo is hopeful that the games will expand to include para dancing. 

Additionally, she would like to see more attention given to the Paralympics, which typically take place two weeks after the Olympic Games and receive less international fanfare. The 2024 Paralympic Games run from August 28 to September 8.

“We see lots of the Olympics. We don’t see as much of the Paralympics,” she said. “Why aren’t we being included?”

Siravo is excited for people to learn more about the artistry of para dancing.

“Dance projects beauty. That’s the reason I love it so much,” she said. “You get to have that beautiful connection of someone who does not have a disability and someone who does have a disability, and you get to find this beautiful space where the two meet and … complement each other.”