Dancing, but with a mobility scooter. It is a striking sight in the Heuvel shopping centre in Eindhoven. Here, mobility scooter users made patterns together with their cart. It is an initiative by designer Femke Hoppenbrouwer to eliminate the stigma attached to the mobility scooter.
“Many people still have a negative image of the mobility scooter,” Hoppenbrouwer explains. “People who may need it, but want to use the mobility scooter less and that is a shame because it is a means to more freedom.” With the initiative she wants to inspire people to start using a mobility scooter.
New legs
The designer noticed that there was an increase in the number of mobility scooters in her area. She started investigating and ended up with a group of mobility scooter drivers who meet up regularly. “What they told me was that it was actually their new legs. Then I thought: ‘Legs, that’s what you dance with. Why don’t we dance?’ And that’s actually how we started.”
Scootmobiel Dance Collective
“I liked that, because it was something new,” says Wim Zelders, the oldest dancer of the Scootmobiel Dance Collective. “People can simply see that much more is possible than just going to the store and back,” explains Marian de Beer, mobility scooter dancer. With the new initiative they also want to show that a mobility scooter is not just for old people, but for everyone who needs one.
Challenges
Femke did see some challenges with performing the dance. “Of course you are dealing with a completely different body. In addition, it takes up quite a lot of space, which can also make it wider.”
“We all have a great urge to continue with this,” says Hoppenbrouwer. After the premiere in the Heuvel shopping centre, the group not only wants to show people in the Netherlands what the possibilities of the mobility scooter are, “We hope to inspire the world.”
Source: Studio040
For Eindhoven News: Lila Mehrez
