For his wedding day, Matt wanted to give his new bride, Elaine, a memorable first dance. Like many grooms, Matt had some anxiety about this first dance. However, unlike these grooms, Matt’s nerves did not stem from having two left feet: He is a paraplegic who needed to learn how to dance in his wheelchair.
Before he met his now wife, Matt had a near death motorcycle accident that paralyzed him from the waist down. He survived the accident, and began working to overcome his disability, as well. Matt took an active approach, and learned how to handcycle and play wheelchair sports. It was through this that he met his bride-to-be, Elaine, who was the director of adaptive sports at his hospital.
When Matt and Elaine got engaged, Matt was nervous about the first dance, because he knew how important that moment is to many brides. Even though Elaine offered to skip the first dance, Matt made another plan.
Matt and Elaine went to wheelchair dance classes with John Nyemchek, a choreographer who literally wrote the book on the popular dance the hustle. John started them with a basic waltz, but Matt and Elaine wanted something bigger. Instead, they learned to samba to the tune of Michael Franti & Spearhead’s “Say Hey."
Beyond weddings and workshops, wheelchair dancing is also seen in competitions and other performances. This Cincinnati dance studio featured dancers in wheelchairs in a heartwarming performance set to Celine Dion’s "My Heart Will Go On" that had the crowd in tears. Truly talented wheelchair dancers use their wheels as an extension of their bodies to put on impressive performances.
In turn, the couple's resulting dance was absolutely epic, and had their guests going wild. Matt and Elaine didn’t stop the dancing there, though, and now continue to help with John Nyemchek’s wheelchair dancing workshops.
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