An MS fairy tale

When life gave Rebecca MS, she decided to learn to dance

When Hans Christian Andersen wrote the Snow Queen in 1844, he probably never thought his fairy story would be performed as a dance. What is even less likely is that he thought three wheelchair dancers would play the parts of Kai, Gerda and the eponymous queen.

However, 180 years after the Snow Queen was written, an innovative dance featuring three wheelchair users has just toured Midlands theatres performing a wheelchair dance based on the fairy story to critical acclaim. One of the dancers is MSer Rebecca Fowler, a 39-year-old mother of two who lives in Redditch, Worcestershire.

Rebecca was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2006, aged 22. Her first symptoms came years earlier and involved a mixture of numbness and pins and needles from her chest down. At the time, Rebecca was also experiencing weakness in her legs and was struggling with her knees giving way as well as getting up and down stairs. Scans showed an area of spinal cord inflammation which was managed with steroids. Another scan in 2006 showed lesions in her brain which led to her diagnosis.

An MS diagnosis, as we all know, brings with it a heavy emotional load and Rebecca admits that she has struggled with depression and mental health issues. But self-help is often the best help and Rebecca actively looked for a new direction for her new life as an MSer. And ten years after diagnosis, having negotiated a difficult decade, Rebecca discovered wheelchair dancing.

“I started learning to dance in 2017 aged 33. Following a deterioration in my health after the birth of my daughter I was coming to the end of a period of rehab and was looking for a way to keep active independently,” she says.

“I use a wheelchair in my day-to-day life so I was looking for something I could do as a wheelchair user. I found a wheelchair dance group called Freewheelin in nearby Birmingham and decided to go along and try it out. I really enjoyed myself and found it was a good way to continue to keep active and have never looked back.”

Freewheelin is a community group mainly aimed at people with a disability and the majority are wheelchair users. The group learn and cover a wide variety of dance styles in each session so there is something for everyone. The shared connection of being disabled and/or chronically ill means members have a lot in common and Rebecca says she has made a lot of very good friends from being part of the group.

“In the group we all have different disabilities and different ranges of movements, but we are able to adapt the choreography to suit our bodies and what works for us, which makes it such a flexible and inclusive way to keep active. I think ultimately as long as you’re having fun and enjoy moving to the music it really doesn’t matter how you move.”

After several years of being involved in Freewheelin, Rebecca decided to take her dance a stage further and joined a group called Propel Dance, a new all-wheelchair user professional dance company based in Birmingham which has just secured investment from Arts Council England to pilot a short tour of three theatres in the Midlands with a contemporary re-imagining of ‘The Snow Queen’.

Propel Dance’s Artistic Director Helen Mason says, “We care deeply about equity and equality of opportunity. It’s why we exist. There are few professional opportunities for wheelchair dancers, and we wanted to be that change, to create something that enables progression and inspiration to the future generations.

“We stand for compassion, inclusion, and representation throughout our dance projects and opportunities. Guided by our shared values, Propel Dance hopes to inspire, lead and propel change in professional wheelchair dance.”

After the Snow Queen, the future for Propel Dance will depend on being able to secure further funding to hopefully be able to develop the show further to a bigger tour around the UK. But for Rebecca there are several other dance projects she continues to be involved with and she has a rapidly growing list of credits for her dance work outside of Propel Dance.

In 2022, Rebecca took part in Wondrous Stories, the opening of the cultural festival for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, something she describes as a “wonderful experience.”

“I was part of the Opening Ceremony and had a lead role as one of the Dreamers who told the story of athletes arriving in Birmingham and finding out the history of the city of Birmingham through a 30-minute dance show.

“This was another fantastic experience and something new again, working on such a massive event with a huge cast of both professional and volunteer performers was a huge learning curve but such a fun experience.”

Looking to the future Rebecca says her long term goals for dance are to enjoy herself with whatever she’s doing. “Whilst I’m very driven and enjoy a challenge, I tend not to set myself too many goals as ultimately, I just want to enjoy what I’m doing and will follow opportunities that I think sound fun. My life goals are to keep as active as possible for as long as possible and to do the very best I can with what I have.

“First and foremost, I love dancing. I don’t think I would have got into dance without my disability and certainly wouldn’t have considered being in a show like the Snow Queen, so feel this has been an unexpected opportunity to have come from it.”

Although no-one can deny that MS limits opportunities particularly for those diagnosed in early adulthood, Rebecca and her story is an inspiration. It shows that while MS closes many doors for us MSers, it can and does open others if only you seek them out – something Rebecca has done with great style and imagination.