SEM LIMITES // Dencing without limits

Brazil // Rio de Janeiro

 

This reportage is set in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and takes part of a project on the discrimination and the difficulty of Social inclusion for approximately 24.5 million people with disabilities in Brazil, 14.5% of the population, who still live in hardship due to the lack of adequate social and rehabilitation services and of a cultural delay which tends to isolate them.

The "Sociedade Cultural Projeto Luar de Dança" was born in 1990 in Jardim Primavera performing ballet classes with a group of street children to keep them away from crime. The dance, an expression of the body common to all human beings, knows no language and cultural barriers and it's an excellent way of communication and social inclusion. For this reason, for some years, the "Projeto Luar" has also started dance workshop called Sem Limites (Without limits), to support the inclusion of a group of young disabled people within traditional classroom settings, with the aim to build a culture of appreciation of the body and a progressive increase the cognitive and affective abilities.

The expressiveness of the body becomes a form of therapy and rehabilitation technique, that uses dance and the mind-body relationship to encourage and support mental health and psycho-motor development.