This year the World Para Dance Sport Championships was held in Belgium and attracted 170 sportspeople from 22 countries. For two days, they were wheeling onto the floor, dancing the standard and Latin American programs, showing, in spite of wheelchairs, rhythmic acrobatic tricks, and creating a special atmosphere. Ivan Sivak won the gold medal in the men’s single class 2. He danced the waltz, tango, samba, rumba, and jive. He was doing it on his own, taking his cue from the audience.
Sivak has the considerable experience of a champion. Earlier, he performed with his wife Nadia. They used to take part and traditionally triumph at the most prestigious competitions, including world championships. Many watched and tried to copy them, but no one has ever managed to outdance them. They were invincible together. But Nadia passed away a year ago.
“Way back in the summer, competition organizers phoned me and asked for permission to place Nadia’s picture on the banners. So she was with me at this championship, too,” Sivak says. The sportsman confesses that he was incredibly uneasy before the performance, for there was keen rivalry. In general, the singles (solo) category appeared quite recently. While it previously existed mainly for the beginners, now even top participants try themselves out in it.
“I spoke to a respected lady, in fact a wheelchair dance guru (she is one of the founders of these competitions). And this lady pointed out that the strongest sportspeople were in precisely this category at this year’s championships,” Sivak explains. “I competed with another participant from Ukraine, as well as with representatives of Mexico, Japan, the Philippines, and Poland. The rivals were rather strong. Besides, their physical abilities were higher than mine. For these sportsmen mostly found themselves in the wheelchair due to ailments, not injuries. Therefore, they can feel legs and feet, which helps them very much to steer the wheelchair. For example, in the Freestyle category, some of my rivals could even jump out of the wheelchair in an effective trick.
“But the jury judges the dance as a whole, taking into account both rhythm and character. But for me it is a new category of dances and a new round of life. Solo is specific in that you cannot be guided here by the partner. You in fact communicate with the audience and outdance your rivals. In a word, I had to sweat for this victory.”
Besides, the Rivne wheelchair dancer played a new role at this year’s championships, holding a mini-exhibit on the floor.
“I also danced in the Single Freestyle Class 2. It is essentially an exhibition number, where you can select the music, think over the composition, and, what is more, choose the idea you want to put across through the dance. My choreographer Svitlana Kriukova and I have chosen the figure of the buffoon Petrushka. But the problem is she works in Kyiv. So we could only work whenever the team assembled. We worked for the rest of time in a video mode. I would train at Rivne’s Invasport and send the videoed material to Svitlana. We honed the number in Kyiv during training sessions with the chief coach Olena Czyzh. That was the first time I performed at a championship in this guise,” Ivan explains. “In general, Petrushka is rather an interesting character. It is perhaps no accident that he has existed in many countries in various interpretations. He was depicted wearing funny caps with pompons and a shirt with very long sleeves. On the one hand, he is a comical figure. But, at the same time, entertaining the nobility, he was not afraid to tell the truth. I showed in my dance not even a human being but a puppet lost and desolate somewhere in the attic. It lies motionless at the beginning of the composition, but then music begins to play and you can hear a man stepping up the stairs. The theatrical puppet wakes up. It begins to create and eventually finds its essence, soul, and heart. This was the idea of the dance. A little red flower was to symbolize Petrushka’s heart. My wife made it for our daughter. I was to draw the flower at the end of the composition. It was hidden in the folds of my costume, but it fell out amidst the dance. In general, it is a serious mistake that carries lower points. As a result, I won bronze in this event. Then after the performance, which one could watch in the internet, I saw a lot of comments that pleasantly surprised me. People shared their emotions and reflections over the dance, described their feelings and worries. And I understood that I had not done all of this in vain.”
