Thank you to journalist/author awesome mom Donna Bryson and the Christian Science Monitor!
Arts orgs adapt for visitors with special needs
Pittsburgh Ballet is a pioneer in opening the performing arts to people with sensory sensitivities, including bringing in special education teachers as volunteer ushers and encouraging audience members to do whatever helps them engage.
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre performed a sensory-friendly performance of ‘Peter Pan’ in February 2016. (Kelly Perkovich/Courtesy of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre )
Children with autism clapped exuberantly as Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre dancers kicked and leapt to Tchaikovsky.
Pittsburgh Ballet is a pioneer in opening the performing arts to people with sensory sensitivities. Strategies include bringing in special education teachers as volunteer ushers and encouraging audience members to do whatever helps them engage. Christina Salgado, who oversees Pittsburgh accessibility initiatives, said the result can be a bonus for performers. “You could see the joy in the dancers’ faces” as the audience kept the beat during the Russian dance in “The Nutcracker” last season, Ms. Salgado said.
Lisa Goring, chief program and marketing officer of the research and advocacy group Autism Speaks, pointed to stagings of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” in New York and London, which had toned-down sound and light effects, as more evidence of theaters adapting. Ms. Goring has advised the audience diversity nonprofit Theatre Development Fund and since 2011, the fund’s Autism Theatre Initiative has presented Broadway performances including “Wicked” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
Julie Marshall, who studied music at the University of Colorado, had looked forward to sharing live performances with her daughter, who was diagnosed with autism. But at one concert, an usher asked her family to move after another music lover complained about Sarah’s “conducting.” “Our kids are told what to do and how to behave so much in their lives,” Ms. Marshall said. “They rarely get to enjoy music and express who they are on their own terms.”
Marshall started the nonprofit organization BrainSong in 2011 to organize visits by professional musicians to special education classes. BrainSong also produces concerts. Last year, BrainSong raised funds to subsidize tickets for the Boulder Ballet and the Boulder Philharmonic’s first performance of an autism-friendly “Nutcracker.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2017/0321/Arts-orgs-adapt-for-visitors-with-special-needs
Let us turn the page — for a moment, at least — from our recent focus and consider the coming holidays. After an epic election season, families now face the hopefully happier prospect of gathering together and giving thanks.
Recently, we’ve learned of a truly marvelous opportunity for hundreds of families often excluded from a holiday tradition most of us take for granted: A gentle production of Tchaikovsky’s timeless ballet, “The Nutcracker.” (Mark the calendar: Nov. 23, at the Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado Campus in Boulder. Doors open at 1:15 p.m. for the 2 p.m. show. Tickets are $20.)
Working with advocates for children, teenagers and adults with autism and special needs, the Boulder Ballet and the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra are staging a pilot presentation of the famous ballet meant to be as welcoming as it is inspiring — and just plain fun. The “sensory friendly” performance offers families with special-needs members a chance to enjoy a version of the ballet tailored and held just for them.
“No shushing. No judging. And no apologizing,” as autism advocate Julie Marshall tells us.
House lights will be set at 35 percent throughout the production, and attendees will be free to experience the music, the dancing and the visuals as they choose. Need to clap with the music? Need to make noise? Need to spin or dance along? Need to just move around? No problem. Live it up! There’s even a chance after the show to meet dancers in costume who helped make the magic happen.
“When I am enjoying music so immensely, it often tends to stimulate me,” the production’s emcee, Benjamin Tarasewicz, 22, tells us. “It’s amazing how music changes people’s lives, including mine. If I’m having a bad day or something, listening to music just changes my mindset altogether and it feeds my soul.”
But often those with autism, like Tarasewicz, find themselves given the stink eye at concerts and other public gatherings. Families and their children are made to feel shame for outbursts of joy that depart from expected social norms. Mel Persion tells us she felt she had to give up trying to take her autistic daughter to concerts to avoid the humiliation.
No doubt, those are challenges for symphony orchestras, ballets and their fans. So we give thanks for Boulder’s musicians and dancers and the boards that worked to make this experiment a reality. They in turn point to the help from Imagine! Behavioral Health Services, Imagine! Daypring, BrainSong, Autism Society of Colorado and the Association for Community Living.
What a grand idea to find a way to create community for a community too often excluded. What a great gift that that community has the chance to experience talented performers together.
Entertainment
Boulder Ballet, Boulder Phil stage sensory-friendly ‘Nutcracker’
Audience members may sing, yell, talk, dance
When Sarah Marshall was an infant, Mozart calmed her. When she got upset in the car, Gregorian chants immediately soothed her. She found delight in BB King and the blues.
As she grew up, the Lafayette girl struggled with speaking. She couldn’t put two words together in a sentence. But she could sing the ABCs and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
“When she started missing her milestones, it became really clear that music was the key to her language skills,” says her mother, Julie Marshall.
Sarah was diagnosed with severe autism. But the Lafayette girl, today a 12-year-old middle-schooler, has always been musically gifted.
“There’s something about the rhythm of music that organizes her brain. It’s really profound,” says Marshall, who is a violinist herself.
The need to reach her daughter via music led Marshall to create BrainSong, an organization that connects professional musicians and concerts with children with special needs.
That led Marshall to reach out to the Boulder Ballet and Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra — and form a new partnership to bring the “Nutcracker” ballet to people with special needs.
For one afternoon, on Wednesday, Macky Auditorium, on the University of Colorado campus, will open its doors to people who might not be able to sit through or enjoy the traditional, classic show. Colorado’s first ever “sensory-friendly Gentle Nutcracker” with a full, live orchestra will still feature the full sets, costumes and the professional dancers.
Broomfield’s Colorado Conservatory of Dance also offers a sensory-friendly “Nutcracker,” going on three years now. This show is 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 16 at the Performing Arts Complex at Pinnacle Charter School, 1001 W. 84th Ave. in Denver.
The Colorado Conservatory production uses a recording of the music, which allows them to equalize the music so there are no unexpected peaks or crashes in the score that could alarm the audience.
The conservatory also offers a special dance program for children with special needs.
For the Boulder show, to accommodate people with sensory challenges, the house lights won’t go to full dark; they’ll stay at about 35 percent, to minimize the visual difference between the stage and the audience.
To shorten the length, the show will only feature the second act.
The auditorium is setting aside a special “quiet room,” open to anyone who needs some time away from the performance, at any time during the show.
And unlike a traditional theater performance, during this show, the audience is welcome to sing, yell, talk or dance along — whatever they need to do to enjoy the experience.
The auditorium is also only selling half of its tickets (600), to allow for plenty of space between seats, and people can choose their own seats or even move throughout the show, as needed.
To make the show accessible to different incomes, tickets are also discounted, subsidized by a BrainSong fundraising campaign, as well as donors.
Because space is limited, it is specifically geared toward people with special needs, such as autism, Down syndrome or even Alzheimer’s, and their families.
Malva Tarasewicz, of Boulder, and her son, Benjamin Tarasewicz, will be in attendance. Like with Sarah and many other people with autism, music has always been a bridge between Benjamin Tarasewicz and the people who love him.
When he was younger, she says she brought him to musical rehearsals and tried community concerts, but they had to sit close to the exit, just in case.
“I was always really stressed out at these things, not enjoying it,” Tarasewicz says. “It was always scary and felt really risky.”
She never knew when he might have an outburst or breakdown, or when uneducated community members might give a dirty look or even tell them to leave — not realizing how crucial exposure to music was for him.
“Even if everything else in the day was crummy, the music part was when he’d get more centered, this thinking would become more organized — of your therapeutic goals started to come together,” Tarasewicz says.
Even the most severe Alzheimers’ patients who cannot recognize their own reflection in a mirror can recognize a familiar song, research by neurologist Oliver Sacks has shown.
“Music does something for us. It transcends language,” Tarasewicz says. “It’s one of the most primitive things. Everyone can make a beat, and that builds community.”
Today, Benjamin Tarasewicz, now age 22, has developed his speaking skills, as well as his musical and storytelling ones. (He also enjoys telling jokes on stage.) He will be emceeing the “Nutcracker,” explaining what happened in the first act and also sharing his story with others as a role model.
He is a singer in a Boulder community choir, he plays the violin and is teaching himself how to play the ukulele, was a TedX speaker and is involved with other theatrical endeavors, such as a sensory-friendly chamber musical performance of “Peter and the Wolf” at the Boulder Public Library 2 and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Both shows are free and open to the public.
He has seen the “Nutcracker” before, and he says he’s excited to share it with other kids like him.
“The costumes look so nice and vivid and colorful and so does the stage set. You just feel like you’re in a different time and place altogether, especially with the greatness of Macky Auditorium,” he says. “I’m just so excited to see other kids with autism like me having a blast and enjoying the show with no restrictions or shushing and the like.”
Event organizers have done months of research on how to make this work — because the idea is relatively new. Many big-scale production companies in other states have offered sensory-friendly shows before, but the Boulder Ballet, in partnership with the Boulder Phil, is the first professional company in Colorado to try it, says Kate Adams, the project manager of the “Gentle Nutcracker.”
They did offer a smaller sensory-friendly show at a rec center this summer, for maybe 50 viewers. But this is the first attempt at something of this magnitude.
To help prepare for the experience, Adams helped put together a “social narrative” that caregivers can read to people with special needs, to help them know what to expect. The checklist-style document will walk people through everything they will see and do, so there won’t be any surprises. (For example, “We will drive to Macky Auditorium with my family, and then walk from the parking lot into the auditorium and through the lobby and into the gallery. In the gallery, I will see a boutique, and there will be little trinkets I can look at and buy.”)
The “Gentle Nutcracker” website (boulderballet.org/the-gentle-nutcracker) also has photos of the show and videos of the trek from the parking lot into the auditorium, as well as a video of the auditorium.
Professional volunteers and occupational therapists also will be stationed throughout the theater to help. An EMT will be there to help with transfers. Volunteers are stationed at possible danger points, as well, such as in front of the orchestra pit and at the top of stairs outside of the bathroom.
Adams has also helped prepare the performers. (She is one of the dancers, too.) It’s different dancing with house lights on, she says.
“We will be able to see the audience and see them moving. That can’t be a surprise to us. Many will be talking and will have involuntary noises they’ll make,” she says.
Down in the pit, the orchestra won’t have to make as many adjustments. For this show, the music has no plans to be played quieter or adjusted, says conductor Michael Butterman. Although he says the orchestra will play some examples of their music before the show starts, to get the crowd used to it.
He says it was important to the musicians and the dancers to preserve the live music, rather than a recording. First, he says you can hear a substantial difference. But it also contributes to a deeper, more immersive experience, he says.
“The colors are more vibrant. They come alive better,” he says. “There’s a give and take in the performance. We watch and respond in very subtle but important ways, slightly adjusting tempos, waiting, all these little issues that are mostly invisible, but do make a difference to the performers and the way it comes across.”
Ultimately, Butterman says, he believes music and the arts are a basic human right.
“If we had gone along with the ‘Nutcracker’ with recorded music, it would have been much cheaper, but I think it would also have been sending a tacit message that we’re going to do this, but not give you everything we could,” he says. “That’s not the message I believe in. It’s taking time and resources, but it’s an investment that’s a worthy one.”
Ana Claire, artistic director of the Boulder Ballet, says the opportunity to offer a sensory-friendly “Nutcracker” is the culmination of two of her lifelong passions. When she was younger, she says she either wanted to go into ballet or work with children with autism.
She says the dancers will gain as much from the experience as the audience.
“It’s just wonderful how humans with different abilities and psyches can relate. I think it opens everybody’s minds, because there are no words that can get in the way,” Claire says. “Everybody has rhythm. Your heart is rhythm.”
She says she hopes to offer ballet classes for people with special needs soon.
“I’m just hoping to bring dance to more and more people,” she says.
Tips for caregivers
If you’re attending the “Gentle Nutcracker” with a person with special needs, here are some tips that may help:
Practice at home. Tell your child what’s going to happen. Listen to the music at home. Provide concrete references about the experience, instead of it being an abstract concept. Maybe even set up a row of chairs at home and model what the show will feel like, says Malva Tarasewicz. “Practice if you start to feel like you can’t handle it, instead of screaming, give my hand a tap and we will leave so you can rest,” she says.
Try again and again. “You can do the repeats a bunch of times, even in the same performance,” Tarasewicz says. Repeated exposure often helps.
Bring “fidget toys.” Adams encourages caregivers to pack toys that the child may enjoy or even need to calm down.
Choose your seat wisely, but don’t be afraid to move. Sit toward the back if your child tends to get overwhelmed quickly. Sit by an aisle if your child needs to move around.
Aimee Heckel: 303-473-1359, [email protected] or twitter.com/aimeemay
Lafayette News
Boulder County kids paint farm animal rescue mural
By Amy BoundsStaff Writer
Kids in a Boulder County community arts program tackled a five-panel mural on Sunday, painting the rescued farm animals living at Lafayette’s Luvin Arms Sanctuary.
But before grabbing paintbrushes, they met the resident pigs, horses, goats and chickens.
“We got to hang out with our animals and get to know them,” said Anna Sciacca, who’s 14 and lives in Boulder. “I painted a horse. I love horses.”
Anna and the other young mural painters are taking weekly art classes through ARTism: The Sibling Connection. The classes are for siblings of children with disabilities, giving them a safe place to talk about the challenges they face at home.
The group, which is supported by Lafayette-based nonprofits Project YES and The Association for Community Living, was co-founded by Lafayette parent Julie Marshall and art therapy graduate student Megan Delano.
“The kids can share their experiences,” Delano said.
K-Lee Atwell-Stoltz, whose daughter Abi Atwell takes ARTism classes, said there’s not much available for typical siblings of kids with special needs.
“I love that ARTism gives her a place that’s creative, where she can express what she needs to express,” she said. “It’s a place she can feel known and heard.”
Marius Grimsland, a 10-year-old who lives in Erie, is a triplet. One of his brothers has autism, while the other participates with him in ARTism.
“We always get to do fun projects,” he said. “I meet people who are like me and have the same problems as me. We can share our feelings.”
Leading the farm mural project was Lafayette muralist Sarah Spencer, who volunteered her time. She previously helped them create a “Where the Wild Things Are” themed mural on a shed in Lafayette.
Spencer sketched out the mural, then let the kids paint the background and fill in the animal outlines with paint. Once they’re finished, she plans to go back and add highlights and details.
“Kids are great artists,” she said.
Felix Feiger, who’s 11 and lives in Boulder, painted one of the goats.
“It looks great,” he said as he stepped back to check out their progress. “It’s been really fun.”
The group chose Luvin Arms Sanctuary for their second project because ARTism’s co-founder Marshall is a regular volunteer. Plus, Luvin Arms founder Shaleen Shah said, the sanctuary is all about community.
Shah said he and his wife, Shilpi Shah, started by rescuing horses, first taking in a horse named Jale (short for Jalapeno). Next came Niblet, a pony rescued from a slaughter auction, and then Bell, a mare with two foals who also was at a an auction. At the auctions, he said, saw “1,000s of other farm animals” in need of help.
“We just had this wish to do more,” he said.
As it turned out, a neighbor was leasing about 22 acres land off Arapahoe Road near 95th Street. Shah leased the land and enlisted volunteers to help build
the sanctuary. More volunteers care for the 13 animals.
“We want to inspire a more compassionate world for farm animals,” Shah said. “We’re deeply involved with the community. We want to teach people about them and build that connection with the animals.”
Amy Bounds: 303-473-1341, [email protected] or twitter.com/boundsa
PS A BIG thank you to Mike Hedlof at Lowe’s at the Orchard, and Valspar!!!
Lafayette sign language class boosts communication for families
Free, weekly classes open to the public
By Whitney BryenStaff Writer
Nine-year-old Jake Hostelley does not speak, but he has a lot to say.
The Longmont resident has severe speech apraxia making it nearly impossible for Jake to express himself verbally. So, he signs.
“I’m hungry,” Jake signs to his mom, Kareny. “I want pizza.”
Jake has no problem communicating his thoughts through sign language, but sometimes it’s difficult for Kareny to keep up with her son, which is why this summer she started attending free signing classes in Lafayette.
Sign-language interpreter Jennifer Kuzminsky launched the American Sign Language class in July to improve communication between counselors and clients with disabilities at Lafayette-based nonprofit Imagine!, where Kuzminsky worked during the summer.
Now, Kuzminsky welcomes anyone seeking sign language education to the Monday night class.
“We want all of the families and kids to have access to communication, whatever that means to them,” Kuzminsky said. “The goal is to help families communicate with each other.”
Lafayette resident Julie Marshall helps coordinate and promote the class, which her daughter, Sarah, inspired.
Nearly six years ago, Marshall discovered her autistic daughter was responding to signs the pair memorized from a series of videos called “Signing Time,” which Sarah watched religiously.
“I’d do the sign for play or book to her and she’d say it back to me, verbally,” Marshall said. “The visual cues were working for her.”
Marshall continued using signs she learned from the videos but a sign language teacher at school was expensive. Marshall shared the family’s challenges with Kuzminsky during an Imagine! program and the class was born.
Three months later, Marshall, Sarah, 11, and Sarah’s sister, Jazzy, 8, were signing to each other on a playground while they waited for Monday’s class to begin.
Kuzminsky leads the informal sessions that focus on casual signing lessons based on the needs of participants and offer a relaxed environment for children and adults.
This week, at New Church of Boulder Valley in Lafayette, which donates classroom space for the sessions, the Marshall family was joined by three other families ready to work on their signing skills.
Like the Marshalls, Erika Herreria and Kurt Dunlap are regulars hoping to ease communication with their 2-year-old son, AJ Dunlap Herreria.
AJ has Down syndrome and permanent damage to his left ear, making it difficult for him to hear, Herreria said.
Despite his young age, verbal communication will likely continue to be a challenge for AJ , which the family seeks to overcome using sign language.
AJ knows about 50 signs already, including “more food,” “help” and “thank you.”
Herreria has noticed a difference in AJ’s behavior since they began using signs.
“He’s less frustrated now,” Herreria said. “He used to just scream until we figured out what he wanted, but now he can tell us. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s much better.”
Sign language also is helping AJ learn verbal speech. Herreria said AJ often repeats words as a supplement to signs he performs.
Many participants in the class use signing as a supplement to speech — “just another form of communication,” Kuzminsky said. But not Jake.
Jake knows more than 350 signs he uses to talk about Halloween costumes, his favorite colors or what he wants for dinner.
“Signing is his first language,” Hostelley said. “We have a signing class at the school every week for 30 minutes, but 30 minutes isn’t much.”
Hostelley said the Monday night classes help her remember the basic signs she might not use everyday and often forgets.
But more than practice, Hostelley said the sessions provide extra support and encouragement the family has not found anywhere else.
“It teaches you to just go for it, not to be shy about the hand gestures,” Hostelley said. “I think just being around these other families and watching them sign with each other and signing with Jake is really good for him.”
Whitney Bryen: 303-473-1113, [email protected] or twitter.com/soonerreporter
Guest Commentary: Music speaks to kids with autism
Olga Kern’s black gown cascaded over the grand piano bench, her hands engaged in a fervently romantic dance of notes penned by Rachmaninoff. Like a great personal gift, the virtuosa conjured melodies that soared high into the balcony where I sat with my daughter, Sarah.
The pulsing harmonies made it difficult to sit still in our plush velvet chairs. For my 10-year-old with severe autism, the task was impossible.
Like most children diagnosed with autism disorder, Sarah is compelled to awkwardly move her body in space and make strange noises, which explains why families like mine are banned from experiencing the performing arts. Our collective experience is a virtual sign in every lobby: No Autistic Kids Allowed.
Sarah constantly rocked in her chair that night and waved her hands as if conducting a symphony orchestra. Music has been a profound experience for Sarah, who at age 3 could sing her ABCs and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” pitch-perfect, but could not speak a coherent word. Watching Sarah absorb Kern’s performance was an “A-plus” parental moment.
But I give an “F” grade to the usher who pulled us aside at intermission to ask if we could downgrade our seats — to ones much higher and further back — in Boettcher Concert Hall to appease someone who was complaining of Sarah’s “conducting.”
Numerous studies show that music, dance and theater all have a profound effect on kids with autism. The Boston Conservatory of Music has a unique music program for kids with autism, and trains master’s-level music teachers to work with our kids. A national advocacy group, Autism Speaks, last fall sponsored a Broadway performance of Disney’s “The Lion King.”
“We had the most spectacular autism-friendly performance of ‘The Lion King,’ and we have had many groups from across the country reach out for guidance on how to replicate it,” said the group’s president, Liz Feld.
The Colorado Conservatory of Dance stepped up last winter with its stunning, autism-friendly performance of “The Nutcracker.” And I can hardly wait for Simply Music, a national innovative music curriculum, to come out with its Gateway program, which teaches kids like my daughter to play the piano.
In our house, I’ll often hear Sarah improvising random little melodies on the piano. Like every difficult challenge she has faced, I know she will one day play. Our children are intelligent, capable and motivated; they just need access to opportunities.
And providing access to music is life-changing. Harpist Pam Eldridge was floored the day a boy walked up to her harp after a concert and effortlessly plucked “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” He’s now her student. Whenever she gets bogged down with life, performing for kids with autism is “what lightens me,” she says.
“Autism-friendly” can mean softer music and low lights for kids with heightened sensitivities, but most of all it means acceptance. It means the concert is for our kids, our families. We are center stage, not relegated to some remote and dark corner where we won’t be “bothering” anyone. And we won’t ever have to apologize or explain.
Julie Hoffman Marshall of Lafayette is mom to Sarah, 11, and Jazzy, 8.
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ARTism group in Lafayette provides outlet for siblings of kids with disabilities
Art therapy program runs through May 3, returns this summer, fall
While carefully morphing the clay balls on her table into the shape of a ladybug, Jazzy Marshall, 8, giggles as she tells the room of children how her toys at home occasionally go missing.
The Lafayette resident often plays the role of the big sister, even though she is three years younger than her sister, Sarah, who has autism.
“My sister steals my toys from my room and that’s how I know she was in there,” Jazzy said. “Sometimes she sticks them in her mouth and that makes me nervous because she can choke on them, so I have to watch out for her.”
Eleven-year-old Cata Maiocco chimes in echoing Jazzy’s sibling challenges.
“My little brother puts my toys down the toilet,” Cata said, sending Jazzy into a fit of laughter.
These conversations are the reason why Jazzy’s mom, Julie Marshall, co-launched an art therapy program for siblings of children with disabilities.
ARTism: The Sibling Connection is a weekly art class that provides a safe space for Boulder County children to talk about the challenges they face at home.
“Jazzy really looks out for Sarah,” Marshall said. “She’s likes to be the helper but she had to grow up faster than a lot of kids because of it, so I wanted to do something for her, a time where she doesn’t have to be responsible, where she can just have fun.”
The program kicked off in January at Lafayette’s Church of the Arts with support from Lafayette-based nonprofits Project YES and The Association for Community Living and driven by Marshall and art therapy student Megan Delano. The 12-week program moved to a donated room at the YMCA of Boulder Valley in Lafayette to accommodate growing attendance. Classes will continue Sunday afternoons through May 3 and organizers are hashing out the details for a monthly summer session and weekly fall session.
Lafayette potter David Beumee taught nine elementary and middle school students how to make clay plates during the March 29 class. Previous sessions have included acrylic painting with Louisville’s Michael Symber, cloth books and papier-mache masks.
During the classes, students often talk about their siblings — most of which have autism, though the sessions are open to siblings of children with any disability. Other weeks, participants seem to revel in the uninterrupted attention they receive.
“We’re encouraging conversations about shared experiences,” Delano said. “We welcome them to talk about it, but it really started as a place that was just about them and the therapeutic aspect took more of a role once we got going.”
Louisville resident Cata, 11, was mesmerized by the clay piled around her plate during the March 29 class as she decided how to decorate the blank canvas.
Cata’s mom, Rosario, said the family’s schedule is always dependent on her autistic son, Lucas, which makes daily activities difficult for Cata and her sister.
“Anything we do is on his schedule, because of his needs,” Maiocco said. “This is a great opportunity for her to explore something she is interested in and to focus on herself.”
Maiocco leaves Cata alone at the classes, giving her space to vent her frustrations and the freedom to say what she wants.
“Her other friends don’t get it,” Maiocco said. “It’s good for her to be with other kids in similar situations who understand what it’s like.”
Boulder 6-year-old Aurora Wilson-Patterson was quiet as she added designs to her plate and listened to the other children tell stories about silly things their siblings have done until one of the children talked about her sibling’s aversion to green food.
“My brother always eats Popsicles and he always takes two and they’re always orange,” Aurora tells the group before returning to her project.
The conversation bounced back and forth between art and autism seamlessly transitioning from the clay coil that lined one student’s plate to the her sibling who refuses to wear clothes lately — another successful class, Marshall said.
“This is what we hope for,” she said.
Whitney Bryen: 303-473-1113, wbryen@coloradohometown weekly.com or twitter.com/soonerreporter
Ballet performance magical for autistic child
I felt the true spirit of the holidays Friday night when I took my
daughter to an unusual “Nutcracker” ballet specifically performed for kids with autism and disabilities that make it impossible to sit still, be quiet and blend in. What unfolded was magical and more than I could have possibly anticipated.
When the professional dancers from Wonderbound (formerly Ballet Nouveau), along with students from Colorado Conservatory of Dance, took the stage, my 10-year-old daughter, Sarah, stood up and moved closer.
Row by row, she was magnetically pulled toward the beauty of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece and the athletic movement in front of her eyes, until she reached the first row and parked herself there for 90 minutes.
Sarah has severe autism and rarely focuses her attention. But on this night, she was mesmerized by the rare gift of this 2014 season. Her intermittent jumps for joy and squeals were met with smiles, because the performance was built for kids like her. No one told me to make her sit down, or be quiet. She experienced the night body and soul, and I was in tears watching from the sidelines.
After the show, a father told me how much he enjoyed watching Sarah.
Julie Wilkinson Manley, the school’s artistic director and CEO, told me how much the performance meant to her dancers. The lights were on; the music was soft and I noticed the dancers were smiling beyond a stage affect due to the feedback from all the children who, like Sarah, were twirling in the aisles and making joyful noise.
This was a rare event of liberation for families like ours, whose kids cannot enjoy the arts. Shameful stares from concertgoers keep us at home, as if it were our parenting style rather than the manifestation of autism that is driving our kids to express who they are. A friend told me last week. “society won’t change,” but I disagree. And this performance is proof that there are amazing people who understand the immense joy of dance and music, and the profound effect it has on children who benefit wildly from immersing themselves in the moment.
If there is a universal message here, it is that our kids deserve to be treated to the same high quality of the arts as all children. They feel it; they experience it, they love it. There is no better joy for a parent than to see a child so blissfully happy. Thank you, Colorado Conservatory of Dance, and I hope your example proves fruitful for many more sensory friendly performances throughout Colorado in music, dance, and more.
Julie Hoffman Marshall lives in Lafayette.
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More Media:
PODCAST
Brainsong No Shushing Concert With Ana Claire and Julie Marshall
Piper Conducts! A VIDEO of Brainsong No Shushing Concert featuring the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Ensemble led by Catherine Beeson!
KGNU Interview: