[Video: In a dark studio, Suzie and a group of dancers are finding their port de bras by creating half circles and full circles using the gaze. They're then taking that into the upper body, which may be the arm, shoulder or an extended gaze. They then find a plié. For the wheelchair users, it’s their upper bodies pressing into their wheels – hands on wheel rims – and finding small presses to propel themselves forwards.

For those on the floor, they're pressing into their hands and lifting themselves upwards, away from the floor. For others, they're finding a press into their knees and lowering and rising. The deeper press propels some of the dancers forward a little more. It may be a deeper press into the elbows, the legs or into the knees. The dancers all recover before they go again.]

The plié

When you’re exploring a plié from a Universal Design perspective, to really understand its essence it’s necessary to look at language. The terms ‘press’ and release’ can be viewed as universal for all bodies.

So we're looking at the function of that plié, and we're also looking at where it features in class. Why do we need a plié for our different bodies? What’s the relationship between the plié and the rest of class or rehearsal?

For me when I’m sitting in my wheelchair, it's the relationship between my wheel rims and my hands. It's about how I push into those wheel rims in a very articulate and clear way.

I know exactly how much pressure to press and release for a demi plié and a full plié – and also how that's going to inform my movement later in class, when we come into the centre.

The port de bras

When taking a port de bras in a universally designed class, it’s good to explore how to achieve this without bringing our arms into the movement. Maybe our arms are already engaged or perhaps we don't use our arms. Either way, it’s still possible to find its essence.

One way is by taking it into our eye line. With a port de bras being about framing the body, it's about creating half circles and full circles.

You can do this initially with the plié exercise and choosing to take that into the eyes – making half circles and full circles with the eye line and the gaze – then taking it into the upper body – perhaps into the arms, into the shoulders – and then pairing that with a plié exercise to add complexity.

Settling and refocusing

I always have a little settling time between each section of movements to let the brain and body pause and focus on what's coming next.

Support positions

It's really important to have pliés in different support positions that work for our particular bodies.

We need a narrow support position (first), a wide support position (second), a crossed and a closed cross support position (third and fifth), and an open cross support position (fourth).

The plié exercise and all of our barre work give us the opportunity for a far richer diversity in our movement language. They offer opportunities to start and finish movements in a different way.

They offer points of exploration: How do we press if we're in a closed cross position? And how does that affect our movement?

It also avoids us getting stuck in a rut where we might just stick with the same movement which we know feels comfortable in our wheelchairs or movement aids. It makes us really explore other possibilities.

And then, of course, we're also finding commonality with our contemporaries. There will be a moment when it’s possible to see that all dancers are in fifth position regardless of whether they’re using a wheelchair, crutches or they’re a standing dancer.

When we truly focus on function, we can clearly see the commonalities between all dancers. It’s about creating a shared language for diverse bodies.