Dance on Wheels

It was an unusual performance for CRPF officials and their families in Delhi on Saturday

It was an unusual performance for CRPF officials and their families in Delhi on Saturday. The dancers performing complex Bharatanatyam and Yoga movements during the concert impressed the audience for another reason all performers were differently abled and belonged to a Delhi-based group called Ability Unlimited.

Hindered by a lack of electricity,the performance began with a sufi solo which saw a 22-year-old whirling his wheelchair,draped in pink cloth,in traditional sufi style. The deft movement of the artistes fingers,with the wheelchairs falling perfectly in time with the beats of the music,held the audience in its grip,as did the yoga asanas.

The segment of the Bhagavad Gita,which involved an enactment of the 10 avatars of Krishna,gave the wheels another dimension as the wheelchairs turned into colourful chariots. These 12 disciples of Guru Salauddin Pasha,Founder of Ability Unlimited,have been performing for about a decade.

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Says performer Gulshan Kumar,22,Initially it was difficult to balance as we were on wheelchairs. There was also a communication gap as the girls have hearing disablity. But,with time,weve learnt to coordinate and have perfomed countless shows in India and abroad.

The troupe comprising seven boys on wheelchairs and six girls with hearing disability,also performed to A R Rehmans Jai ho,an original compositions of their guru,and Vande Mataram,sung by one of their fellow artistes from the NGO.

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