Vaughan Evans is a below knee amputee who happens to have a passion for Dancing and Skipping. He is attempting to form an organization called: "The Canadian Skipping Dancers." Among its purposes are:



(1) to help Children With Special Needs learn to skip and dance (This includes rope jumping-and non-rope skipping



(2) to use skipping and dancing-as a tool-to instil an interest in-(and an awareness of)songs and poems.



What is a skippingdance?



A "skippingdance" is an aerobic movement-whereby rope jumping is combined-with ballroom dancing steps. The ballroom dancing steps may be forward, backwards, sideways-or diagonally-or any combination of these (it could be a backward diagonal step). They could be



* long slow steps

* short quick steps

* Long fast steps or

* short slow steps - or any combination of these.



To do a skippingdance take a step-with one foot- in any direction, then clear the rope-on that foot-then take a step with the opposite foot, then clear the rope-on such foot. To choreograph a dance, you would take into consideration:



* the meter signature of the song

* the tempo of the song.



You could increase or decrease the tempo of the song-if you like-to effect a certain pattern of steps. Suppose you anted to dance to "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" You might decide what to do on



* the accented beats

* the unaccented beats



For more information, post here or visit www.skippingdancers.com