Paraplegic Eeva Simons is proof that a physical disability need not bar anyone from taking to the stage and dancing. With deft handling, she can put her wheelchair through elegant moves and win applause worldwide.
The 34-year-old is among a group of four Finns with different physical disabilities who staged the Asian premiere of an award-winning dance performance in Hong Kong earlier this month.
Bound to a wheelchair since jumping from a roof in a suicide attempt that ended her dancing career 16 years ago, Simons, of Finnish dance troupe Public Artistic Affairs, said for a long time she had been depressed, with no idea how to adapt to her changed circumstances.
'The accident had a big impact on me,' she said.
'I had never thought what it would be like to be a wheelchair user. It was difficult. I was unhappy at that time. I didn't know what I could do.'
But positive change came several years later when she met a group of disabled people at a community centre. Their interest in alternative ways of movement and dance therapy rekindled her passion for both dance and life.