Wheelchair Dance Coming to BBC3

A new series on Wheelchair Dance Sport starts Thursday, 11 February on BBC3 pairing six celebrities with six wheelchair users in a dance competition.

Called “Dancing on Wheels”, the celebrities will learn about the art of wheelchair dancing and the winning couple will join the Great Britain Team at the Wheelchair Dance Sport European Championships. The first episode will have three couples learn the Cha Cha Cha, and the other three take on the Tango.

With the first episode already planned to be repeated on 12, 16 and 17 February, this version of “Strictly Come Dancing” was one of the notable highlights that BBC3 recently announced.

Wheelchair Dance Sport involves athletes with a physical disability that affects the lower limbs. Wheelchair dancers may participate in "combi"-style dancing with an able-bodied (standing) partner or duo-dance for two wheelchair users together. Standard dances include the waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, slow foxtrot and quickstep. Latin-American dances include the samba, cha-cha-cha, rumba, paso doble and jive. There are also Formation dances for four, six or eight couples dancing in formation.

In 1998, Wheelchair Dance Sport became an IPC Championship Sport, but is not part of the Paralympic programme today. It is governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and co-ordinated by the IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport Technical Committee, which incorporates the rules of the International Dance Sport Federation (IDSF).