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Sexy wheelchair dance film to premiere

Feb 23 03:00

What some people are calling Dirty Dancing on wheels, Musical Chairs is a romantic comedy set in the world of wheelchair ballroom dancing.

Directed by Susan Seidelman (of Desperately Seeking Susan and a handful of Sex in the City episodes) the film follows the love story of Mia from the Upper East Side and her suitor, Armando, from the Bronx. They meet because of competitive dancing and when she becomes paralyzed, he helps her overcome her injury by helping her discover wheelchair ballroom dance.

This movie was completed in late 2011 and only audiences at film festivals have been able to see it so far, but from what people who've seen have been saying, we may finally have the perfect disability movie on our hands. It’s real, in that is shows the difficulties of SCI and how hard it is to adjust to an injury, yet it’s sexy (it shows Mia in some very steamy scenes, including a very hot rehab pool scene where she makes out with Armando), and it does all of this is a non-cheesy manner that doesn’t make you cringe. So many disability movies usually do this.

It’s also not a sob-story kind of film that tries to make you feel sorry for her. The movie is a pure romantic comedy and I love it for that. So many movies that involve a paralysis plotline are all doom and gloom; not fun or whimsical in the least. Put it this way: There are fabulous drag queens who visit Mia on her rehab unit in the film. Need I say more at the greatness of the film? This movie strives to do what I always thought I would do if I ever had the chance to make a film: It shows disability in a beautiful and positive light and isn’t afraid to um, you know, have fun.

The film has been criticized by some. The film only used three actual wheelchair-users in the wheelchair competition dancing scenes (the rest of the AB actors were taught how to wheelchair dance). Auti Angel, one of the best known wheelchair dancer in the world, is one of the real-life wheelchair-users in the film. She looks great from the screenshots I’ve seen on the movie’s Facebook page (which I highly recommend checking out). While the lack of real chair-users in the film may be bogus, you can’t take away all the great things going for it.

Interested in seeing the film? A full nationwide release was just set for Musical Chairs. Look for it in select theaters in your area starting March 23rd, 2012.

Links

- Watch the trailer on iTunes

- Visit the film’s official site: Musical Chairs

- Review from SheKnows.com: Salsa…With a Bit of Roll

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1. D | Feb 23 04:32

Seems such a very logical step in the past 5+ years. Using a real person w/a disability to portray a person who has that "dis" in the film. Currently I'm aware of a new film being formated that involves someone blind and the director is looking for a real "blind" person to secure the role. Alas, I have never heard of any blind actors/actresses for such. Deaf, chair users, yes.

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By Tiffiny Carlson

Tiffiny Carlson Disability buzz, travel, fashion and dating — fun things to amp up everyday wheeling life.

Tiffiny Carlson is freelance writer and writes the “SCI Life” column for New Mobility. She's also a C6 quad from a diving accident that occurred when she was 14 years old. A lifelong resident of Minneapolis, Tiffiny has been a writer in the disability community for over 10 years and writes for several publications and blogs, as well as her personal blog BeautyAbility. Her work has also appeared in mainstream publications such as Nerve.com and Playgirl.