Australia’s first wheelchair dancing team, Emily Preketes-Ashley and Paul Ashley, will head to the United States in December to perform at the World Latin Dance Cup.
The husband and wife duo from Kingsgrove first took up wheelchair dancing when preparing for their wedding dance in 2016.
Now, they’ve got a personal dance instructor who choreographs Latin dance routines, which they then translate to be wheelchair compatible.
Pretekes-Ashley said translating the moves isn’t as difficult as it may seem.
“To translate the choreography to wheelchair dancing, it’s kind of not that difficult, sometimes it is and we have to practice more and more to get it right, but it’s pretty easy to pick it up,” she said.
Although the couple’s instructor had experience in dance, he had never choreographed wheelchair dancing before.
“He teaches us what he knows and then what we can do with dancing, and we push and spin around and do some movements with our hands,” Pretekes-Ashley said.
A long-time para athlete, Preketes-Ashley grew up playing wheelchair basketball, and now competes in long and short distance wheelchair races while practicing dancing once a week.
She said people in wheelchairs should not give up on fulfilling their dreams.
“It is really important for people in wheelchairs to practice sports and dancing. I think its really good for them so people in wheelchairs can be active and move around a lot more.
“Other people can walk around and do what they want to do so it’s a bit harder for people in wheelchairs but we just act normal.
“We’re normal people like everyone else and so we just want to be active and move around a lot more,” she said.
Ashley said he had been involved in wheelchair sports since the age of 9.
‘‘At school I had a bit of a hard time fitting in and being involved in certain activities such as sport and PE so that is the reason I got involved in wheelchair sports,” he said.
“I’ve competed in wheelchair track and road racing, as well as wheelchair basketball, swimming and rowing.”
Paul has represented NSW and Australia in each of these sports and has traveled all over the world to compete.
‘‘I like to always say that life doesn’t slow down or stop just because you are in a wheelchair, it certainly hasn’t slowed me down, if you have dreams or goals, just get out there and follow those dreams and goals and have fun doing so.’’
Preketes-Ashley hopes that people in wheelchairs can be inspired to achieve their goals regardless of their disability.
“My motto in life is ‘my ability is stronger than my disability.’
“I think everyone with a disability or in a wheelchair are stronger than they think and anything they want to achieve in life, they can get there no matter what.”
The couple are raising money to attend the event in Orlando, Florida, where they’ll perform in the Limitless category.
They have set up a Go Fund Me page where supporters can help them get to Florida.
