Dança em cadeira de rodas: significações e métodos em um projeto de extensão na cidade de Manaus

Abstract

Dance has great transforming power and can enable important connections, both at the individual and relational levels. When it comes to people with disabilities, it is no different, even for wheelchair users, who by allowing themselves to use their body as a creative instrument and form of expression, can also enjoy the benefits and potential that dance can produce. In order to understand the meanings that teachers of an extension project at the Federal University of Amazonas, which develops activities with wheelchair users, have about dance for wheelchair users and how they have developed their activities in this dance modality, this research was developed in a descriptive and qualitative perspective. For this purpose, a total of four teachers were interviewed. It should be noted that due to the small number of teachers, we decided to include two dancers who participate in the classes and act as na assistant teacher during the classes of this project and the data collected from them were analyzed based on discourse analysis. These data indicate that the prevailing meanings, according to the interviewees view, basically follow two directions: recognition of students efforts in the learning process and, also, the benefits of dance.