photo by: Derek Redd

Sara Lawrence-Sucato, kneeling, Dancing Wheels director of education, and Lil Craig of 2Reel, right, Dancing Wheels company member, begin Monday’s class for local young dancers at Easterseals Rehabilitation Center.

A Cleveland-based dance company showed local young dancers Monday night that there are no barriers to embracing and enjoying the art form.

The Dancing Wheels Company, the first and foremost physically integrated dance company in America, held another class for local young dancers Monday evening at Easterseals Rehabilitation Center. The company, founded in 1980, features both stand-up dancers and sit-down dancers – dancers who perform with the use of wheelchairs. On Monday, they showed a group of Ohio Valley dancers more about their work.

Dancing Wheels’ visit was facilitated by Oglebay Institute. Cheryl Pompeo, director of the Oglebay Institute School of Dance, said she has been working with Wheels for about 10 years, the same amount of time that OI has offered its Danceabilities program at its studio, which allows dancers of various abilities to perform together.

“I saw Dancing Wheels a million years ago on ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,'” Pompeo said. “And their director, Mary Verdi-Fletcher, was dancing with the Joffrey Ballet. And I just thought if she could dance in and out of a wheelchair, why couldn’t we?”

Teaching Monday’s class were Sara Lawrence-Sucato, Dancing Wheels’ director of education, and company member Lil Craig of 2Reel. The duo started the class describing the company’s work and showing the younger dancers one of the wheelchairs often used in performances.

Lil Craig, one of the company’s sit-down dancers, is entering his ninth year with the company.

He always enjoys the opportunity to educate others and show those with different abilities that they, too, can perform.

“It’s awesome to be able to have an opportunity to show my art and express myself through dance and motion in a way that most people are not aware they’re able to,” he said. “Dancing has given me the opportunity to be able to learn different ways of my own ability to be able to do so on a dance floor.”

Lawrence-Sucato, one of the company’s stand-up dancers, has been with the company for nearly 20 years. Those two decades have been both an opportunity to teach and to learn.

“Not only as a person and an artist, but also as an educator, it’s imparting my experiences and what I’ve known, what I’ve learned,” she said. “But also, it’s learning with other people and, along the way, what they find out about physically integrated dance or about their capabilities individually as dancers.”

The company members appreciate the opportunity to help lead dancers to revelations – for dancers with different abilities to see a company like Dancing Wheels and realize there is a place for them in dance, and for able dancers to see that they can join sit-down dancers and work in synchrony with them to create something beautiful.

“I think it’s a big deal for people to be able to see someone who has a challenge such as mine, a suitable challenge, and say, ‘You know, I never knew somebody like that was able to do that,'” Lil Craig said. “I think it’s inspirational to be able to give yourself encouragement to be able to do what it is that feels good for you.”

“I like being able to be put in a position where people challenge me,” he continued. “I’m able to exceed that challenge, to be able to encourage another person who’s watching.”