Interview for USA Dance Greater Louisville Chapter

Wang Vision 3D Cataract and LASIK Center, Nashville, Tennessee

1.  Name of person I am interviewing.

Ming Wang, MD, PhD, past president of the Music City (Nashville, TN) Chapter of USA Dance. I am an ophthalmologist specializing in LASIK, cornea and cataract surgery. I am an amateur ballroom dancer, an international style 10-dancer, and a former member of the Harvard University Ballroom team. My highest achievement in ballroom dancing is being ranked 4th in the 2007 world ballroom championships in pro-am international 10 dance.

2.  How did this all get started, and can you tell us about how the
event has grown from its beginning until now, and exactly what the event is about?

The EyeBall the annual fundraiser ballroom dance gala of our 501c(3) charity, the Wang Foundation for Sight Restoration (www.wangfoundation.com). The sight charity foundation was founded in 2003 to help indigent patients to undergo much needed sight restoration surgeries. To date, the foundation has helped blind patients from over 40 states in the US and 55 countries worldwide, with all sight restoration surgeries performed free-of-charge by the foundation doctors.

The EyeBall showcases a world-class ballroom dance show (at this year's event--EyeBall 2009 on Sat, 10/3/09, 5:30pm at Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN--world professional mambo champions, Felipe and Carolina Telona, will be donating their entire show for the EyeBall! It is an evening of classical ballroom dancing, with guests in ball gowns and tails, amidst the Viennese Waltz and an amazing orchestra. This occasion brings together ballroom dancers, musicians, doctors, businessmen and women, and people from all walks of society, who come to appreciate the beautiful art of ballroom dancing and to experience and have gratitude for the wonderful gift of sight that each of us has. At the EyeBall, the guests will meet some blind patients, listen to their testimonies and hopefully understand that their world is not as colorful and beautiful as ours, but rather is dark and painful because they can not see. This sharp contrast between what we have and what they do not have reminds us all how precious our God-given gift of sight is to us and how much we need to help those who have lost this gift.

So in summary, the EyeBall is a medical charity event combining medicine, music, vision, sight and ballroom dancing. It shows that ballroom dancing is not only beautiful, but also meaningful, since its very breathtaking beauty and elegance evoke in each of us a renewed sense of appreciation for our sight, and inspires us to help those who don’t have it.

3. How has this event helped others?

Though all foundation doctors donate our surgical services, the EyeBall raises funds for all other costs involved in helping blind patients receive these sight restoring surgeries. EyeBall 2009 (Sat, 10/3/09, 5:30pm, Opryland Hotel, Nashville, TN, www.wangfoundation.com) is the 5th annual EyeBall. To date, the foundation has helped blind patients from over 40 states in the US and 55 countries worldwide. The foundation doctors published a paper in the world-renowned journal "Nature", published 5 major textbooks in the field, hold several US patents for inventions of a new biotechnology to restore sight, and performed the world's first laser-assisted artificial cornea implantation.

4.. What would you like to see happen in the future with the event? Do you feel ballroom dancing is a good way to help out charitable organizations?

Combining the beauty of ballroom dancing with charity medical care has a bright and unexplored future. The rising popularity of ballroom dancing, and the growing public awareness of its benefits facilitate this possibility. Most people are aware of two of the three main benefits of ballroom dancing, i.e., music and physical exercise. However, the third and most important, yet perhaps least realized benefit of ballroom dancing is that it is about sensitivity, connectivity, and awareness of one human being about another. In order to ballroom dance well, one needs to be receptive towards another human being, not only with regards to his/her physical position, but also his/her emotional position. Only through communication, connection, understanding and sensitivity to the needs and desires of another person can one ballroom dance well. So this crucial benefit of ballroom dancing cannot be overlooked.

Hence, ballroom dancing is uniquely suited to be combined with medical charity care to help those who are in need, since ballroom dancing is about sensitivity and connectivity with another human being, as is effective medical care.

Charity medical care can play an important role in helping reduce the heavy financial burden of our nation today by providing medical care to those who have the greatest need for help, yet are the least able to pay for it.