A stunning work depicting the ballet piece Sylphides, from reknowned foot and mouth artist Elizabeth Twistington Higgins. Twistington was a professional ballet dancer and teacher in her twenties, until she contracted polio in 1953. She was paralysed below the neck, and used an iron lung and a wheelchair the rest of her life. She retrained as a painter, holding and controlling the brush with her lips; her subjects were usually still life or ballet themes. She used an adapted easel and other custom devices designed by Roger Jefcoate.[5] She was a member of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists,[1][6] and her paintings were exhibited internationally.[7] She directed a liturgical dance troupe, the Chelmsford Dancers, and continued to teach, choreograph, and design costumes for dance.[8]

On her birthday in 1961, Twistington was the subject of an episode of This Is Your Life, a weekly BBC television programme. Most subjects were surprised to be featured, but because there were concerns that she would be harmed by a sudden shock, she was briefed ahead of the show.[citation needed] She wrote a memoir, Still Life, published in 1969.[9] In 1975 she appeared on the Christian inspirational programme Seeing and Believing, and she was featured in an informational film about assistive devices for disabled telephone users in 1977.[10] In 1980 she was the subject of a documentary film, The Dance Goes On, narrated by Rudolf Nureyev,[11] with an appearance by Joanna Lumley;[12] she was also the subject of a book of the same name, by Marc Alexander.[13]

Twistington Higgins was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1977, for her services to the arts.[14] (wiki)