March students are bringing a revolutionary mind and body exercise routine to other disabled students across the country after taking part in a promotional video with their tutor.
Gemma-Louise Hodgson, 29, is the only disabled BOKWA tutor in the UK and she is hoping to introduce this new twist of dance and exercise sport to other colleges for special need students after the weekly sessions have gone down a storm at Facet in March.
Gemma said: “I have made the video as we are trying to get more instructors to teach the disabled programme.
“The video will be shown to the Wheelchair Dance Sport Association in London to see if we can work together and get the programme completely up and running throughout the UK.”
Bokwa gives exercise a new twist in what is fast becoming a growing trend that mixes exercise with mental agility.
The “bo” stands for boxing and the KWA stands for Kwaito which is a hip hop inspired dance style as seen in Beyonce’s video We Run The World.
Gemma is the UK ambassador for Bokwa fitness which sees her travelling all over the UK teaching disabled classes in addition to running a successful dance troupe, Stargazers, in Huntingdon where able bodied and disabled children and teenagers from across the area join together for dance training with a street flavour.
The routines combine ballet, street, up tempo music and hard work.
Gemma said: “I completed drama training while I was still able bodied and was already training to become a Bokwa instructor. About 18 months ago I was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome where my body fails to make collagen. The whole body is connected with collagen so the impact means that I have always suffered broken bones, dislocations, bruises. There’s no cure for it.
“You can either to choose to be ill or choose to carry on and within a week of leaving hospital after being diagnosed I was off completing the final stages of my Bokwa training that I had started before the diagnosis.”
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