HARNESS

Combining skills in dance and physical therapy is nothing new for Tara Anstensen, she’s been at it for nearly 20 years and is part of a family trio of women that founded and lead Wings to Fly Dance Company. Part of their repertoire includes dancers normally confined to wheelchairs and their performances have shown talents that inspire our brains and warm our hearts. Witnessing a local icon in dance, Anna Preston, lift one of our company’s dancers out of their wheelchair and cradle her for audience interaction was the inspiration that sparked a totally new level of inclusion for Tara and these amazing dancers! Tara’s mom, Tena Patterson, has taught to look at each dancer for what they can do, and never limit your imagination by what they can’t do. Why not get a dancer out of their chair and let their enthusiasm and can-do skills soar as they experience a level of inclusion never seen on a stage?

A tandem parachute jump (out of a perfectly good airplane!!) further advanced Tara’s idea and using her surfboard ankle straps painfully hand-sewn together along with some seatbelt buckles, she created her own unique set of dance harnesses. Wearing one harness she connected to another harness secured around a brave but excited dancer and they took steps as one to make Tara’s vision and a dancer’s dream come true! The proprioception between the connected dancers is further enhanced as the design permits the harnessee’s unrestricted legs to move with very little effort, as they are able. This offers the harnessee to engage their legs in expression of the dance and train in ways previously impossible. Words simply cannot express the deep emotions and giddy delight felt by all as the magic of connected dance was defined and is beautifully shared with such energy and life!

Fast forward through countless hours of sewing and testing, with each harness carefully customized with a keen eye towards safety and support for both dancers, and the generous gift of an industrial sewing machine by the Royal Palms foundation (they asked what we wanted!), and we arrive at 5 carefully harnessed and connected dancers gracing the stage over 8 years. Tara’s diverse background in PT and dance provides a unique platform to create and choreograph dance pieces exceeding what we thought possible.

Through the years Tara has utilized her physical therapy assistant students providing an option for learning through their clinical rotations. The collaboration of people to assist in transfers, adjustments, changing costumes, and providing safety has been very important to the success of this endeavor. She has even proposed a ceiling rail system supporting the harnessed patient to aid in the various modalities provided at her clinic and she advised on the design of a locally made (Bausch Industries) custom mobility frame that supports a dancer independently (we call it the Flier Frame) with wheels – featured in WTFDC’s HOPE show of 2018 & 2019.

Tara’s vision for the harness sets is to have them utilized in physical therapy clinics and dance companies around the world. She has proven its ability to provide adequate safety and support for the specially trained harnesser and the harnessee. We have been seeking a company to manufacture harnesses to her specifications but have had no success because of the small quantity needed initially. Please reach out if you can somehow assist us in furthering this goal!