A grandmother who lost her sight aged 45 after being visually impaired her whole life has rediscovered her childhood love for ballroom dancing, competing at the international Freedom to Dance competition and walking away with seven medals.
Deborah Impiazzi, 64, was “always long sighted with big, thick glasses”, but was diagnosed with uveal effusion syndrome – a condition which causes fluid build-up in the eyes, leading the retinas to detach – and registered blind on July 7 2007, aged 45.
Despite her sight loss, Deborah, who lives in Haslemere, Surrey, and has two children and three grandchildren, was determined not to let life pass her by and, among other hobbies, reignited her passion for ballroom dancing through London-based inclusive dance company Step Change Studios in 2024.
Having only been back on the dancefloor for a year, she competed in the international Freedom to Dance competition in London on May 3 and collected a slew of awards for her performances in Latin rumba, cha cha, waltz and more, saying she “loved every second” of the event.
Deborah has lived with partial sight loss her whole life, but it was not until 2007 that she received a diagnosis of uveal effusion syndrome. Over the next 18 months, her condition got “worse and worse and worse”, with her left eye deteriorating faster than her right, until one day, she said, “that was the end of that”.
“When it first happened, it was like a bereavement,” Deborah told PA Real Life of her sight loss in 2007.
“My husband picked me up from work to go out for lunch, and I remember I could not stop crying. It just hit me… It was just like someone had told me somebody had died.
“Then I spent quite a bit of time just laying in bed in the mornings thinking: ‘Oh, God, I’ve got to get up and start again’. It was a hard slog…
“But at the end of the day, you have to start getting your act together.”
During this period, Deborah remembers reading BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner’s memoir Blood And Sand, which details the journalist’s experience with partial paralysis after being shot by Islamist gunmen on assignment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2004. She said his account inspired her to keep going.
“I thought, if he can get up and move about, I can do exactly the same. I can get on with my life,” she said.
Determined not to let her sight loss get the best of her, Deborah began exploring new hobbies. She began cross-country skiing in 2013, travelling to Canada, Norway, the US and more over the years to ski with companies that specialise in tourism for visually impaired people, and has taken part in various international trips including a tea plantation trek in India.
There was one old hobby that Deborah was desperate to re-engage with, however: ballroom dancing.
From the age of four, Deborah had ballroom lessons alongside her older sister and “absolutely loved it”. As she reached her teens, she stopped having dance lessons, but in mid-life realised “I really would like to go and do some dancing again”.
Initially, Deborah struggled to find dance classes that met her needs – dancing while blind can be very different to dancing as a sighted person, and it requires a different style of teaching.
However, on her trip to India with fellow visually impaired tourists she met a man who introduced her to Step Change Studios, an inclusive dance studio in London that provides bespoke lessons for blind and partially sighted dancers.
Deborah went to her first class at Step Change Studios in September 2024, and said: “I was really nervous because I hadn’t danced for 45 years, and although I knew what I should be doing, whether I could do it as a blind person was another story.”
“But I did it, and I just love it, and I thank God that we’ve got something like this… It really is a highlight of my life,” she added.
Each Saturday, she sets off on a two-hour journey from her home in Surrey to central London to take part in the studio’s weekly hour-long ballroom and Latin dance class for blind and partially sighted adults.
She explained that in the classes, instructors explain the movements verbally to the dancers, and also help by guiding their limbs into position so they know how each movement should feel.
Despite having only rediscovered ballroom dancing in 2024, Deborah was excited to be given the opportunity to compete at the international Freedom to Dance competition on Sunday, May 3 this year, which had categories for blind and partially sighted dancers.
Alongside training for an hour a week at Step Change Studios, Deborah practised every day at home, even roping her husband in as her partner – “It’s eating, sleeping and breathing it, really,” she said.
“It brings joy to my heart,” she added.
“That’s the best way I can describe it. I was nervous when I first went into Step Change Studios, and when I left, I had the biggest smile on my face, and that has never gone.
“It means so much. It’s changed my life. It’s given me happiness.”
On the day of the competition, Deborah won seven medals: she placed first in Latin rumba, second in cha cha, samba and the multi-dance, and third in pasodoble, ballroom waltz and tango.
“It was really exciting,” Deborah said of the event.
“I loved every second of it.”
She added that she is thrilled to know that competitions do exist for blind ballroom dancers, because as much as she dances for the love of it, “it’s really inspiring to know that we’re going to be doing something at the end of this” – and she hopes there will be plenty more opportunities to compete over the coming years.
To blind and partially sighted people who are nervous about starting new hobbies, Deborah said with a laugh: “Give me a call, I’ll soon change your mind!”
“It is nerve-racking, but just take that one step,” she said.
“The first step is always the hardest to take, and once you’ve taken that first step, you’ll see that you’re amongst people who are exactly the same as you. You’re there for a reason, because you want to do it. So just take that first step.
“It’s the biggest step you’ll ever take, and hopefully, it puts you on a long journey to enjoyment.”
To find out more about Step Change Studios, an award‑winning dance company that offers dance opportunities for disabled people of all ages and abilities, visit: https://www.stepchangestudios.com.
&uuid=(email))