Watch the World Para Dance Sport Championships on DSI TV

The countdown is on to the Malle 2017 World Para Dance Sport Championships, which take place next weekend on 21-22 October. This prestigious event will be live streamed for free through DSI TV.

Nearly 170 athletes from 22 countries are expected to compete in Belgium, contesting over 18 medal events in which participants can compete combi style, dancing with an able-bodied (standing) partner, or in duo dance for two wheelchair users together.

Para dance sport includes the Standard dances of waltz, tango, Viennese waltz, slow foxtrot and quickstep, as well as the Latin American dances including the samba, cha cha cha, rumba, paso doble and jive.

The sport was renamed and rebranded from IPC Wheelchair Dance Sport to Para dance sport in 2016, although its history stretches back to 1968 when wheelchair user Els-Britt Larsson first pioneered wheelchair dancing for recreational and rehabilitation purposes. From there, the sport’s popularity grew and in 1975 the first competition was organised in Vasteras, Sweden, involving 30 couples.

Para dance sport is widely practised in 29 countries and the last World Championships took place in 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.

DSI TV’s live stream from Malle 2017 will run from 9.30am to 12.30pm on Saturday 21 October and then again from 1pm until the end of the prize-giving. The live stream will resume again on Sunday 22 at 9.30am until 11.30pm, and then from 12.15pm until the end of the prize-giving at around 6.50pm.

Visit www.paralympic.org/dance-sport or www.facebook.com/ParaDanceSport/ for more information on the Malle 2017 World Para Dance Sport Championships. To watch the live stream for free on DSI TV, sign in to www.dsi-london.tv