N.Z. advanced in teachin handicapped—dancer

Press, 15 October 1986, Page 3

N.Z. advanced in teachin handicapped—dancer

New Zealand is advanced in catering for the needs of the intellectually and physically handicapped, says a visiting German dancer who teaches disabled adults in London.

“You think along the Maori-based system of the extended family, and there seems to be tremendous awareness, and a willingness to reach out,” said Mr Wolfgang Stange, who has worked for the Inner London Education Authority for about 11 years as a dance lecturer in creative education.

“You may think you are 10 years behind everyone else in some things, but from what I have seen people seem enthusiastic and committed to catering for the disabled,” he said. Mr Stange is in Christchurch this week to lead a series of workshops on special recreational needs at the national recreation workers’ in-service course' at Living Springs, Governor’s Bay. More than 20 intellectually and physically handicapped children from Hammersley Park

School and the unit for the disabled from Mairehau High School took part in yesterday’s workshop with recreational workers at the conference and staff from the schools.

Mr Stange said he had been impressed with the integration of the intellectually handicapped with others, and the commitment of the teaching staff at Forbury School in Dunedin. This is his second visit to New Zealand. Last year, Mr Stange was invited to the Dance and the Child International conference in Auckland, where he said he had been impressed with an integrated Auckland primary school, which was run “on the Maori philosophy.” The normal pupils there often took it on themselves to spend extra time with their intellectually handicapped schoolmates, he said. The extended family atmosphere was one where all the pupils could contribute as equals, not where they were made to feel inferior.

“You need a balance, so that the other pupils realise that it is not such a big deal to be intellectually handicapped. That way they do not grow up with the prejudices of the old system.” Mr Stange, originally from West Berlin, did not start learning ballet until he was 23, as he had hoped to become an actor. He trained as a dancer at the London School of Contemporary Dance under a Viennese tutor, Hilde Holger, whom he came to regard as his "guru.” Mr Stange said it was through Ms Holger that he came to realise his potential for working with the disabled, and other people with “special needs,” such as the elderly or “socially disabled” young persons. Since 1975, Mr Stange has taught dance and organised creative movement workshops with groups of the mentally handicapped, physically disabled, psychiatric patients in hospitals and day centres, adult education institutes and the cardiac unit at Charing Cross

Hospital. Since 1976, Mr Stange has also been an enthusiastic member of a nonprofit making agency in London called Shape, which helps to foster an awareness of the arts in the community. Often artists worked with patients in the hospitals. “I believe that art and the artist have got something to give that is different from the other therapists because they have the love of their art to communicate,” said Mr Stange. Aside from his work, Mr Stange has also directed and choreographed a successful dance and theatre group, Amici, since 1980. Most of the members are intellectually handicapped or blind and work with ablebodied members.

The group’s professional ability was recognised in 1982, when it performed to a packed house at The Palace Theatre in London. The theatre was considered “the high temple” of the dance world, Mr Stange said.