World Para Sport operates on the ethos that there is a sport or activity for everyone. It shouldn’t matter whether you are able bodied or disabled, parasport believe in inclusivity so that people can compete together and not feel left out in any way. When the majority of people think of sport, they only think about contact related sport in which competitors have to tackle each other in order to win the ball back etc.
In sport which is specifically designed for disabled people to take part, certain adaptations have to be made to the area in which the sport is placed or the ball which is used to make it fairer and more equal for people with certain disabilities to take part.
An example of a para sport, is World Para Dance Sport which is an extremely elegant, graceful and stylish sport which involves athletes with physical impairments that affect their lower limbs. Participants can compete combi style, dancing with an able-bodied (standing) partner, or duo dance for two wheelchair users together. Group dance involves wheelchair users only or together with able-bodied partners whereas single dance sees a wheelchair user dance alone.
This season will open in Genoa in June when the Italian city hosts the Genoa 2021 World Cup. The competition runs from the fourth to the sixth June at the Tower Genova Airport Hotel and Conference Centre.
The venue was set to host the European Championships in 2020 but the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Cup will be the first official World Para Dance Sport competition since the 2019 World Championships in Bonn, Germany.
Teams have until 15 March to submit a letter of intent in case they plan to take part in the World Cup. The deadline for entries is 5 May.
World Para Dance Sport Manager, Camila Rodrigues said: “We are really happy to be see Genoa hosting an important event this year following the cancellation of the European Championships in 2020. We are looking forward to seeing some of the world’s best athletes in action again.”
In a statement, the Genoa 2021 Local Organising Committee (LOC) said: “Liguria Region will be hosting one of the most important international events in the Para dance sport calendar this year. The World Cup will be an important path for the promotion of the sport nationwide in Italy. We would like to thank World Para Dance Sport, NPC Italy, the Italian Dance Sport Federation, the Liguria Region and the Municipality of Genoa for their support.”
There are a number of different styles which can be danced as part of this sport. These include:
Standard which includes dances such as the Waltz, Slow Foxtrot and Quickstep.
Latin American which includes the Samba, Paso Doble and Jive.
Freestyle/show dance can include the standard dances (conventional) or any style for presentation (folk, hip hop, Latin, standard, ballet, contemporary, street dance, salsa, Argentinean tango, cumbia, belly dance, etc.).
There are also Formation dances for four, six or eight couples dancing in formation.
Since 1998 the sport has been governed by the IPC and co-ordinated by the World Para Dance Sport Technical Committee which incorporates the rules of the World Dance Sport Federation (WDSF).
The sport is not part of the summer Paralympic Games sports programme.
The sport originated in Sweden in 1968 when wheelchair user Els-Britt Larsson was one of the pioneers of wheelchair dancing. From there the sports popularity grew and in 1975 the first competition was organised in Vasteras, Sweden involving 30 couples.
Two years later in 1977, Sweden staged the first international competition and several regional and international competitions soon followed.
There is a need to have a dance floor which is a minimum of 250 square metres with no side of the floor less than 10m in length, and 350 square meters for Championships.
