{"id":59,"date":"2025-08-13T09:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T08:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/?p=59"},"modified":"2025-08-18T01:48:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T00:48:19","slug":"dancing-beyond-barriers-empowering-people-with-disabilities-through-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/2025\/08\/13\/dancing-beyond-barriers-empowering-people-with-disabilities-through-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing Beyond Barriers: Empowering People with Disabilities Through Dance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Across the UK, people with disabilities are using dance to break barriers, challenge stereotypes, and express themselves in ways that go beyond physical limits. This growing movement shows how art can bring people together and change the way society sees disability.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-60\" style=\"width:554px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-165x110.jpg 165w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/BFF2025_K36A0869-780x520.jpg 780w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>A performance by disabled dancers. Photo courtesy of Martin Wilson.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.feelthebeat.dance\/blog\/the-benefits-of-dance-for-disabled-individuals\">research<\/a>, dance provides disabled participants with physical, emotional, mental health, social, and cognitive benefits, improving both well-being and confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I spoke with Rachel Jean Birch, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.neidn.co.uk\">NEIDN<\/a> Development Coordinator and Martin Wilson, Executive Director of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tinarts.co.uk\">TIN Arts<\/a>, about how inclusive dance changes lives and builds community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Dancing Beyond Barriers\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" 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While the information on this website has been verifed to the best of our abilities, we cannot guarantee that there are no mistakes or errors.<br>The material on this site is given for general information only and does not constitute professional advice.<br>The views expressed through this site are those of the individual contributors and not those of the website owner. We are not responsible for the content of external sites.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-rounded\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"552\" height=\"552\" src=\"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30\" style=\"width:171px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1.jpg 552w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1-110x110.jpg 110w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1-250x250.jpg 250w, https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24241\/2025\/08\/cropped-cf183bd7c5bc11a92f139522d24ad9c-1-544x544.jpg 544w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 552px) 100vw, 552px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-site-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"home\">Echo Dance<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Across the UK, people with disabilities are using dance to break barriers, challenge stereotypes, and express themselves in ways that go beyond physical limits. This growing movement shows how art can bring people together and change the way society sees disability. According to research, dance provides disabled participants with physical, emotional, mental health, social, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":60,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists.org.uk\/xinyue-yang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}