When life changes, your dreams don’t have to. That’s the message behind the newly released dance drama, Ballroom, that thrusts wheelchair ballroom dancing into the spotlight.  

Ballroom follows the story of Violet, an aspiring dancer whose dreams are shattered when a car accident leaves her a paraplegic. With the support of her therapists and her love interest, a charismatic dance instructor, she battles depression and begins dancing in her wheelchair. A few plot twists threaten her Cinderella ending, but she digs deep to find the courage to love herself again and fight for her place on the dance floor.    

In her first feature film, actress, Madeline Delp, who uses a wheelchair, stars as Violet. “Authentic casting mattered deeply to us,” said filmmaker Laurence Walsh. “Rather than cast an able-bodied actress as Violet, we took a groundbreaking approach—using a body double for the standing scenes” says Walsh. Adding that Delp, who like her character was paralyzed in a car accident “brought a lived understanding of loss and resilience that made her performance extraordinarily powerful.”   

As a competitive wheelchair ballroom dancer and co-founder of Dance Mobility, an inclusive adapted ballroom dance program in Metro Detroit, I was very excited when Walsh reached out to me in 2022 to tell me about the project and ask for my help. Over the course of many months, we exchanged countless texts and emails, discussing everything from the type of dance chair the character should use and the costume that would work best, to sharing videos of real wheelchair ballroom dancers to help inspire the movie’s choreography. To acknowledge my contributions, Walsh even named a character in the movie after me…a wheelchair user, who like me had a diving accident.   

In preparation for the movie, Delp who had no wheelchair ballroom dance experience, also came to Detroit to train with some of Dance Mobility’s professionally trained wheelchair ballroom dance instructors. We even loaned her a dance wheelchair for her to train with. It was amazing to see Delp’s transformation into a dancer. When I watched the movie, I was blown away by her dancing. She has a natural musicality and an intuitive understanding of movement, with a graceful rhythmic quality that makes her dancing captivating to watch.  

Other notable cast members include Delp’s onscreen love interest, Dmitry Chaplin from Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance fame, and Push Girls star Mia Schaikewitz, who plays an occupational therapist in the movie. In fact, Schaikewitz is one of the inspirations behind the movie’s script. After becoming paralyzed as a teenager, Schaikewitz discovered wheelchair dancing; one of her first dance partners was Walsh’s brother.  

Walsh says she hopes people walk away from the movie with a greater awareness and appreciation for wheelchair ballroom dancing, and that the story encourages people going through challenges in life know they can overcome them and lead a full and happy life.  

Ballroom is currently available to rent or buy on multiple streaming platforms in North America including, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play and You Tube Movies.