Dance helps improve mobility, confidence for the blind in Mexico

World Today

Dance helps improve mobility, confidence for the blind in Mexico

In Mexico, a group of young women are practicing ballet. But they’re not just dancing to impress the audience.

They are improving their mobility and gaining confidence. And doing it all without sight. CCTV America’s Martin Markovits reports.

Every Saturday, Lorena Nivea embarks on a two- hour journey from Puebla to Mexico City to teach ballet. But this is not a typical class, her students are a group of young blind women who are using ballet as type of therapy to help them gain confidence and self- worth.

In 1973, the program was launched by a Cuban psychologist, Georgina Farinas Garcia. Using a psychotherapeutic approach through dance, Garcia wanted to help people with behavioral disorders.

Today, the dance is taught to people with all types of disabilities and has spread to 17 countries. But what is most striking is the innovative ways it teaches people who are handicapped.

This ballet program initially started as a therapeutic exercise. Now two years later, this group is performing professionally in front of audiences across Mexico.