About 200 Tristate children and their families this week saw dancers whose artistry soared.

        And it didn't matter that some of the dancers use wheelchairs.

Dancing Wheels' Tracy Pattison and David Nau dance at the University of Cincinnati's Clermont College. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        Dancing Wheels, a Cleveland-based dance company and school, gave two performances Thursday and Friday at University of Cincinnati-Clermont's Calico Theatre to demonstrate how people who use wheelchairs for mobility can use them for art.

        Dancing Wheels was the first of six “integrated dance companies” in the United States and 33 worldwide, said Mary Verdi-Fletcher, president and founder of the troupe. In integrated companies, dancers who have disabilities dance with those who don't.

        It's entertainment with an important message, said Mary Verdi-Fletcher, its founder and one of its principal dancers.

        “They're geared toward introducing audiences to the concept (of) integration in the arts, access to the arts, and inclusion of people with all kinds of abilities,” Ms. Verdi-Fletcher said.

        “We feel very strongly that everyone should be able to participate in the arts.”

        There's an added gift. Ms. Verdi-Fletcher said children and adults with handicaps learn that artistic expression knows no disability. Often the disabled don't even know if they have artistic talent because they're not encouraged to explore it.

        Dave Nau, one of the dancers Thursday night, is a good example, she said.

        Before he became a dancer, he had been a construction worker. When doctors told him that as a quadriplegic, he'd be unable to move his limbs, he didn't buy it.

        He took an amateur dance class at Dancing Wheels two years ago. Now, at age 52, he has a career as a professional dancer, the company founder.

        Audience members commented on his strength and grace.

        “It was amazing that a construction worker can train to dance like that. I didn't even notice the chair,” said Reenie Crawford, who was there with her 10-year-old daughter, Katie.

        “Good people with disabilities can dance,” added Katie, who studies dance. “They are no different than anybody else.”

        Ms. Verdi-Fletcher said she knew she wanted to dance for a living at age 3.

        Born with spina bifida, Ms. Verdi-Fletcher has used a wheelchair for mobility most of her life. As a child in Cleveland, she and her brother danced routines her mother made up.

        “In our family there are many artists; it was a natural thing for her to do,” she said.

        Ms. Verdi-Fletcher never got formal training from a school but learned from individual professionals. She founded Dancing Wheels in 1980 to allow dancers who use wheelchairs to formally study.

        Since then, hundreds of students attend classes each year, studying dance professionally or as part of community-based troupes. The dance center also attracts international students, especially for its summer workshops for young and adult dancers.

        Dancing Wheels' professional troupe employs 17 dancers who present full-length, main-stage concerts and story ballets. The company's next major show is a story ballet in Cleveland, Dec. 1-15. Called The Snowman, it is based on a children's video and book.

        Audiences can expect rabbits in wheelchairs, a rapacious wolf and lots of dancing snowmen, Ms. Verdi-Fletcher said.

       For information, call (213) 432-0306 or e-mail proflair1@aol.com.
       
       

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