Dance with the senses. A dance class with visual impaired and sighted children in a conservatory: one-year experience

Figures & data

Table 1. Demographic data.

	Participant 1	Participant 2	Participant 3	Participant 4
Age	18	12	15	11
Height	150	145	149	135
Weight	48	38	45	31
Visual impairments	Blinderness since birth	Blinderness since birth	Blinderness since birth	Partial visual impairments (severe) (+ hearing loss)
Manual dominance	Left	Right	Right	Right
Previous dance practice	No	Yes (tap dance)	Yes (tap dance)	No
Other artistic activities	Theater	Theater	Theater	No
Access to conservatory	Car	Tram	Tram	Tram

Figure 1. Word cloud with the words used to describe the dance class.

Table 2. Satisfaction questionnaire results.

	Follow-up 1				Follow-up 2
Participant number	P1	P2	P3	P4	P1	P2	P3	P4
I am happy to participate	5	5	5	5	5	4	5	5
My balance has improved	4	1	2	4	4	4	5	2
My walking has improved	5	4	5	4	5	4	4	5
My mood has improved	5	3	5	5	5	3	5	5
My coordination has improved	5	4	3	5	5	5	4	3
My strength has improved	4	3	3	5	4	4	5	3
My endurance has imrpoved	3	4	2	4	3	5	5	2
I would like to continue participating in the dance class	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	5
I am more physically active	4	3	5	5	4	3	5	5

Score : 0 = I am not agree; 5 = I am totally agree.

Table 3. Results for physical abilities for each participant with visual impairments (P1, P2, P3, P4). Bold characters represent an improvement for follow-up 1 and 2.

	Baseline				Follow-up 1 (change)				Follow-up 2 (change)
	P1	P2	P3	P4	P1	P2	P3	P4	P1	P2	P3	P4
TM5 Normal (s) Maximal (s)	6 5	11 7	8 5	7 4	+1 0	−3 −3	−1 −1	+2 0	1 −1	−3 −3	−1 −1	+1 +2
Unipodal balance (s) Right Left	1 2	2 2	5 5	2 4	+1 +1	+2 +2	+1 +1	+1 0	+1 0	+2 +2	+2 +1	+2 −1
Standing balance Sway area (mm2) Displacement (mm)	218.2 208.0	136.8 228.6	97.9 141.5	62.5 350.4	38.1 −35.2	−34.2 −66.5	−28.2 −19.4	−10.2 −209.4	−68.0 −39.3	−40.0 −94.4	−36.1 −37.4	−28.0 −241
Quadriceps isometric (N) Right Left	197.5 242.45	161.9 126.3	234.9 254.6	156.75 160.1	−26.9 −45.85	41.35 103.05	−0.7 3.15	−3.3 −26.25	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Flexibility (finger-ground distance (cm))	11.5	−9	−1	−12	−1.5	+1	+1	−4	+13.5	+9	−13	−3
	Baseline				Follow-up 1				Follow-up 2
Weight distribution ([value − 50%] - %) 0 = perfect symmetry	5.85	−1.85	10.4	2.55	4.9	3.8	5.2	7.05	0.3	1.85	2.3	2.8

TM5 = five meters walking test; p = participant.

Figure 2. Center of pressure parameters for the 4 children with visual impairments. Mean and standard deviation are represented for sway area (mm2) and total displacement (mm).

Figure 3. Each figure represents the center of pressure displacement during a standing balance test during 30 seconds. For each participant, three tests are showed: baseline, follow-up 1 and follow-up 2. The closer the displacement is to center line, the more centered the participant is.