Blind Students Embrace Ballroom Dancing After Strictly Winner's Triumph

Visually-impaired students at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford have taken up ballroom dance classes inspired by Chris McCausland's 2024 Strictly Come Dancing victory, the BBC reported.

McCausland, who studied at the college in the 1990s and was born with hereditary eye condition retinitis pigmentosa, won the 22nd series of the dancing competition. According to the BBC, students at his former college have spent the academic year learning to quickstep and jive, recently passing their first dance exam.

Rashmi Becker, founder of Step Change Studios who created the country's first dedicated blind ballroom programme, told the BBC that demand had grown since McCausland's win. The classes are delivered by Worcester-based Translucent Dance Studio.

Student Amy Griffin said she had always loved watching Strictly and was inspired by McCausland. "I've always loved watching Strictly but I've obviously never been able to see the dancing, so I've wanted to know, 'What does it look like?'" she told the BBC. "It's really given me the opportunity to visualise it because I'm doing it."

Fellow student Freeman Fox described it as an opportunity that "doesn't come around often," adding: "When you get that shot, you take it."