As a young man living in New York City, George Gallego often enjoyed going out for a night on the town and hitting the dance floors of some of the hottest clubs around. But, after a tragic accident at work left him paralyzed from the waste down, Gallego quickly decided his clubbing days were over.
Although his friends encouraged him to get back in the party scene, Gallego would often respond by saying, “How am I going to dance in this chair?” After hearing his response one day, Gallego’s cousin decided to take matters into her own hands and began looking for ways to help him learn to dance. That’s when Gallego first met Rubin Zakiryanov.
Zakiryanov, a professional dancer who hails from Russia, moved to the US about ten years ago and founded the Discovery Dance Company in New York City in 2003. In addition to teaching ice skaters how to dance and instructing classes in ballet and hip hop, Zakiryanov decided to offer a unique dance class for individuals in wheelchairs. “I did this class for kids and adults with disabilities and I fell in love with it,” Zakiryanov said.
In April 2006, Zakiryanov founded Wheelchair Dancesport USA, a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching wheelchair users social and competitive forms of ballroom and Latin dancing through private instruction and group classes. Zakiryanov also offers lessons geared to preparing couples to dance at their own wedding.
“I just try to adapt (the steps),” Zakiryanov said. “I want it to look exactly [the same] as everybody else. I bought a wheelchair myself and I am practicing how to adapt this to ballroom dancing.”
「Thanks to an anti-obesity law passed last year, Japanese salarymen across the nation are pulling up their shirts to have their guts measured... and if they're overweight, they face consequences.
If you're male and your waist is over 33.5 inches, you're considered fat. If you're female, the limit is 35.4 inches. Thanks to those burgers, you now have to attend mandatory counseling with a physician. For every grotesquely obese employee like yourself, your company gets hit by a fine; ergo, they strongly encourage you to lose weight with gifts of gym memberships and pedometers.
The goal of all this is to prevent Japan from experiencing an obesity epidemic like so many other industrialized nations. The theory is the less overweight people you have, the lower health care costs will be across the board. Although I think the waistline restrictions are a bit strict (how is a six foot tall foreigner supposed to have a 33-inch waist?), this seems like a good idea overall. America could certainly benefit from less junk in the trunk... but would such a system work here?」
・Japs imo urge to grow up because that's completely freaking childish....You are killing individuals' freedom, that's uncostitutional since everyone has the right to express oneself even being fat. ・Did you know that sashimi and such animal raw foods are a flourishing ground of bacterial petri dishes if not properly cooked?? they can lead to serious cases of intoxication like botulism, salmonellosis・・・