Moves
I really messed my knee up when I was younger, and as a consequence I spent a couple of months in a plaster cast. It started at my ankle and ended at the top of my thigh – very little movement in it at all.
This happened, coincidentally, at the same time I was due to make my stage debut in the local pantomime. Not that I have ever been into that sort of thing. I’m quite introverted in that way, but, as I was a slightly odd child, it was thought of as a good way for me to socialise with other children.
I seem to remember that I picked up using crutches quite quickly, I had mobility and some degree of pace. However, my rigid leg (which I wasn’t allowed to put pressure on) made dancing virtually impossible and having a crutch in each hand rather limited my already small ability to act.
Still, I made it onto the stage and for each number I performed pretty much the same dance… the one I have named the crutch can-can… and it goes a little like this –
Standing on your good leg, with your bad leg hovering above the floor just out in front of you, lift the crutches, pointing the end towards the audience and then make it wiggle a bit – like jazz hands, but with a stick.
Lower the crutches to the ground and lift your good leg up and forwards, bring it down and move forward as is appropriate.
Repeat… as I said, for several numbers.
It’s not so easy to cut rug when your mobility is limited… which just highlights the skill of dancers like The Infinity Dance Theater.
Philip J Schadenfreude on 
I don’t know why anyone would think that a pantomime would be a good place to make friends, haha.
well, the people one would meet there would certainly be interesting.
Jazz hands, with a stick. That’s the cutest damn thing I’ve ever heard.
Wheelchair ballet… never thought of that. What a cool idea, must be a really neat performance.
Dancing in place is still dancing.
Even the heart has rhythm.
This reminded me of a video I found a few weeks ago. Obviously, the guy is putting weight on both legs, but it still looks pretty cool:
http://media.ghostrobot.net/7014_workitout_v1_web.mov
Umm, waltzs are in 3…
You’re not wrong, but for the purposes of illustration, you have to start somewhere… which I’ve labled as 1. – I suppose I could have put that where the two is and moved the other numbers accordingly…
How I waltz:
Step, step, apologize.
Waltz? That’s how I dance.