DanceAbility Stories: Part 3
Hello everyone! We are so glad you decided to join us for part three of DanceAbility Stories- this week’s guest writer is Jim Ballard!
[When I first found DanceAbility] it was 2007 or 2008. I was just discovering the world of dance. I was at Lane Community College and went to one of their dance shows. I had no idea that DanceAbility was performing that night. Alito and Emery where performing the ‘’Tango’’. Now I had grown up in a medical family with my mom being a nurse. The way she taught me to treat people with disabilities was in good spirit but ultimately wrong. So when I saw Emery in his chair and Alito swinging him around I had a bit of worry and concern. Within just a few minutes of watching my whole perspective flipped. I was profoundly inspired.
I was always told that dancers don’t have a “long shelf life.” “A dancers career is over by the time they are thirty, if they are lucky.” “That you have to have a certain body type to be a dancer.” DanceAbility gave me hope. It showed me that I was wrong, that “they” were wrong. Limitations can be pushed onto us, can be something we are born into or something we blindly accept. From just working with DanceAbility I have found my voice. I have been able to create beyond my limitations and I have been able to give hope to fellow dancers that felt they are “too old” or that their
injury prevents them from continuing a career in dance.
When people ask me for a definition of DanceAbility, I generally refer them to the website but that if I had to sum it up in one sentence it would be “If you are alive you CAN dance.”.
Get involved with DanceAbility this year! First, we have a 5-day Intensive taught by Jana Meszaros, right here in Eugene, Oregon. This is a great chance for you to get a great idea of the DanceAbility Method, this training is open to high school students as well as adults! Second, want even more knowledge of this Method? We have a month long certification to become a certified teacher of the DanceAbility Method in Vienna, Austria! You can find more information about the upcoming trainings at the links below.
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