Manipuri Thang-Ta performed by Differently – Abled Disciple of Guru Syed Sallauddin Pasha. Pasha firmly believes in training and presenting Thang-Ta professionally On Stage

Wheelchair dance organisation Miracle on Wheels goes for National and International Franchises.

“Can’t dance, I have two left feet.” Said this or heard it? What does it take to be able to dance? What if one of those two left feet is doesn’t move at all or is missing?

These were my thoughts when I saw an event notice for dance performance by differently-abled artists on wheelchairs to mark World Spinal Cord Injury Day on September 5. There are so many causes limiting free use of legs and the complex of neurological and muscular control of our limbs. Perhaps less complicated is understanding the desire to dance, to move freely and expressively within in the range of individual capacity.

A bodily sensibility is one of the intelligences we all have to communicate feelings and ideas. If one’s /kinesthetic intelligence is more advanced than average, the result is dancing beautifully with whatever strength, flexibility and control you have.

An American documentary on the anticipated end of polio in India in the year 2000 placed me, as local producer or glorified go-fer, to make connections with scientists, Rotarians, film crews and and an excellent school for polio affected children in Delhi, Akshay Pratisthan. Founder Aruna Dalmia then asked me on several occasions to choreograph dances for her wheelchair and caliper supported students.

The energy, enthusiasm and abilities of the specially-abled children to dance was outstanding. Years later, I asked Akshay Pratisthan to create a Ramayana with their wheelchair and prosthetics and orthotics enabled students for the American Embassy School, New Delhi and discovered that their 2 choreographers, Manoj Baraik and colleague, had started their lifelong passion for dance from the first time I got them dancing.

Miracle on Wheels is in the forefront, both in India and internationally, in training and performance opportunities for differently abled artistes. From Rastrapathi Bhavan, Delhi to the House of Commons, UK, as well as North America, the Middle East and Italy, their Bharatanatyam, Sufi Dance and even Yoga on Wheelchairs have been performed for stage, film and television.