Australia's Dancing With the Stars will have a blind celebrity competing in the upcoming series starting July. A world First for the SCD franchise

source: http://au.tv.yahoo.com/dancing-with-the-stars/

Wauw indeed, hope he does well!!

Good luck to him! Dancing with the stars had a deaf competitor (Actress Marlee Matlin) a few seasons ago & she did really well.

His first dance is up on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0bcU1B2-OU
For a first dance it was quite good, I've seen much worse! It's obvious from his face he's concentrating very hard though. Latin and dancing out of hold is going to be much tougher

Great first dance! We've had MUCH worse on our SCD!

Yes I agree. I hope he does well. However, for ballroom at least, I suspect that it is easier for a woman who is deaf or blind than a man, simply because the man has to lead (although maybe it's not too bad having to get round a big dance floor with noone else on it). In latin it's probably less the case since there is not as much dancing in hold.

Also, I guess the female professional always leads a bit even though she's not supposed to.

Thank you so much for posting this....

to have a disability, and still be able to dance like this means that you have a true bond, trust and understanding with your partner, and as Stella says, we've seen much worse!

I didn't view it with any degree of "sympathy" but instead, I really enjoyed watching this dance with a different perspective, and trying to understand how, when you have this kind of disability, you are able to sense timings and feel of the music, and yet be confident enough to do some of the things they did in this dance.

I thought it was wonderfully heartening - and showed that dance transcends all types, sizes and abilities AND disabilities. I learned a lot from watching it.

REALLY lovely - am glad you posted it - thank you.

You're welcome tangoqueen.
I completely agree with what you say. I was really curious to see how Gerrard would do , it really adds to my interest in dance.

I Googled Gerrard - he certainly an inspiration and a very active ambassador for people with disabilities.

Yep, I've just read this old article which describes a bit about his background http://www.abc.net.au/queensland/stories/s1367605.htm

His dancing looks to be of a reasonable standard for a first dance. This isn't just an achievement for him, but also for the professional. Would be interesting to know how the professional goes about the teaching someone who is blind. Normally they demonstrate the steps, but obviously this wouldn't work here. So I wonder how you would explain a whisk and chasse for example (as danced in the clip)?