Dança esportiva em cadeira de rodas: construção/constituição, equívocos e legitimidade

Abstract

The wheelchair dance sport is a competitive sport dancing that is practiced in many countries. The sport is played in pairs in two styles: the duo dance, the two athletes in wheelchair dance, as in combi, an athlete must have the need to use the wheelchair to dance and another standing dance partner without any disability. This latter style has been practiced in Brazil for about ten years. The purpose of this study was to tell the history of wheelchair dance sport in the country considering facts and voices. To do so and write a factual and chronological version, based on documents, it was tried to find the basis in oral history which gives the minorities, in this case people with disabilities, a voice in the society. The athletes had the opportunity to communicate their experiences. In doing so they were motivated to search in their memories the meaningful facts related to the wheelchair sportive dance that helped to create an imaginary about the sport history in their lives. This study started from the need to understand how this modality without roots in Brazilian culture was produced and consolidated in the country, and even without any support for about ten years, it remained until today. Taking into consideration scientific and chronological history referred to the emergence and construction of the wheelchair sportive dance thru the events and important facts considered by the athletes implicated in this context shows us a different story compared to other sports and announces a time of evolution for this sport.