PEWAUKEE — “They call me twinkle toes because I never stop dancing.”
It's obvious once you see her on the floor, Gabi Berthiaume loves to dance.
“Through dance and through just sports in general, I feel like I don’t have to try and fit in. I already fit in," Berthiaume said.
She is a para dancer. Berthiaume has spina bifida, so she is in a wheelchair. However, she doesn't want to be looked at like a dancer in a wheelchair.
“I’m a dancer - not a dancer with a chair."
She practices with her instructor Ariel Frieilich at Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Pewaukee.
"I see her as a dancer. She’s one of my competitive dancers. I treat her the same. I expect a lot from her. We have a lot of fun, but we don’t hold back on our training because she’s in a chair. That doesn’t stop us from training," Frieilich said.
The two have been working together for about one year.
Berthiaume is part of an organization called Wheels and Heels. It's an organization that connects para dancers with studios, and it does fundraising for lessons and competition entry fees.
"I want dance to be available to anybody who wants to participate in it," Martha Siravo the organization's founder said.
You can get involved with the organization by going to its Facebook page to volunteer, donate, or sign up.
Berthiaume has been through a lot in her life. Due to her spinal bifidia, she has had multiple brain surgeries. She had one in 2019 during the middle of her high school track season. That didn't stop her from competing, though.
"My doctors were like telling me oh no like why are you already going back to going back on to the track. And I'm like I can’t not move."
Berthiaume got back on the track and won the WIAA wheelchair state championship. She did overall best in the 100, 400, mile, and shot put.
"It felt really good but I was just happy to be there," Berthiaume said.
She is a natural-born competitor. While she has been dancing all her life, she has been doing it more seriously for the past year. On July 15, she will be competing at a national para dance competition in Detroit called the 2023 Dance Mobility Adapted Ballroom Dance Competition.
“I’m really proud of her physically and mentally to get ready for this completion," her instructor and dance partner Frieilich said.
It's the only national competition in the country.
"Just to have fun possibly actually like get a medal or something, and just have fun with it, which I usually have fun with everything," she said.
Berthiaume will be competing alongside Eve Dahl from Burlington.
“Dance allows me to move myself and find myself at the same time," Dahl said.
She is no stranger to the competitive scene. She won an international tournament in Malta.
“I feel better about myself. I feel like I present myself better. It kind of highlights the things that I like about myself," Dahl said.
For these two, while moving around the floor, everything floats away. They get to focus on just dancing.
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