The Importance of Inclusive Dance
Throughout this past year, as COVID has begun to slow down, I have gotten very involved in a variety of different dance projects and performances. Last summer, I participated in a choreographed music video with Born Dancing to a cover of “Run” by Josh Groban and Sarah McLachlan. During this school year, I was a dancer in NBC’s production of “Annie Live” with the National Dance Institute, and also danced in a performance during December with Born Dancing. Soon after my performance with Born Dancing in December, we did another couple of shows in January at a K-12 school in Long Island, which was a very fascinating experience that really opened my eyes to the importance of inclusive dance. You can see highlights of these performances here.
After each of the shows that we did at this school, we had a Q&A session with the students. One of the things that came up during these sessions was the idea of being “grateful.” Avery Roberts, one of my friends that I dance with, and I both brought up the fact that we are grateful to have this opportunity to dance, but this also got us thinking about how — while being grateful is an amazing feeling — we shouldn’t have to feel this gratitude because the opportunity for us to dance shouldn’t be such a difficult opportunity to grasp. Many areas of our world don’t have a single local dance program that integrates dancers with disabilities, which is why we feel such gratitude and thankfulness, but we shouldn’t have to feel this way for having access to a simple service. Dance gives people the opportunity to express themselves through the movement of their bodies, and everybody should be able to experience the beauty and joy of this.
In January, my class was introduced to a project where we had to create a podcast highlighting an issue or topic in which we are passionate. We were also told that after finalizing our podcasts, we would be submitting it to the “NPR Student Podcast Challenge,” which listens to thousands of entries from middle and high school students throughout the nation, and chooses two that they believe are the “winners.” I chose to focus my podcast on the importance of inclusive dance throughout our world, and interviewed the directors and choreographers of the two inclusive dance programs that I am affiliated with; Born Dancing and the National Dance Institute. I also interviewed Avery Roberts who is, again, a close friend of mine that I dance with and who also has a form of muscular dystrophy, and Jillian Mercado, who danced with the National Dance Institute in the past and is now a model, actress, and activist. I created this podcast over the course of about two months, and recently found out that I was one of the ten middle school finalists out of thousands of entries. This was very, very exciting news for my teachers, my family and I. You can listen to my podcast below.
