The "Ridgeville Rock-on Rockstars" is a group of teens girls who have been engaged in a Performance as Therapy process for teens with special needs facilitated by the Community Outreach Coordinator and Annie Snow (current third year student) at Ridgeville Park District in Evanston. The girls performed their self-created piece "Dancing Cars" at the Annual DMTC Student/Faculty Dance Concert. The girls were very nervous about being on stage, anxious about how things might go and yet super excited to be in an "adult show." One of the best parts of the process for them was seeing the outstanding lighting design and haze effects that they requested come to life by Julie Ballard, Dance Center lighting designer. Thanks, again, Julie!
Many poignant personal stories arose from this experience.
One of the girls was standing beside me backstage waiting for our turn to dance. She was closely observing Emily's (second year student) solo performance and turned to me to ask if would could learn to dance just like Emily because she was really good. I responded, of course we can!
The moms had much to share via email the day after the performance. It was summarized in a letter of gratitude to the DMTC faculty for creating the opportunity for the girls to perform this year:
"The moms were blown away with how warm, inviting and supportive our community was of the girls. They had never experienced such a feeling from a group of strangers and could not find enough words to express their gratitude. They said that after the rehearsal and performance the girls were full of laughter, jokes, funny stories and other teenage type interactions with each other on the way home. After the performance, they stopped at Rockin’ McDonalds at the request of one of the girls and the moms said that they skipped right in just like any other teenager. This was profound for all three moms to witness because they had never seen their daughters look like “normal” teenagers in a community setting before. They felt that the experience of preparing to perform and being a part of our “adult” concert where they experienced so much support was the cause of this shift from witnessing daughters with special needs to teenage daughters."
And the impact on our community was also quite powerful.... As summarized by the Community Outreach Coordinator in a note to parents:
"I knew that our department community would be tremendously supportive of the girls but I did not realize until we were in the middle of it how much they understood about the many ways that the process supported the girls in their own growth and how wonderfully loving it would feel. I was quite overwhelmed by the support and general appreciation from our community.
Many colleagues and family members approached me after the performance to tell me that the girls' dance was their favorite piece in the concert because they could feel the excitement and pure joy as well as appreciate the level of courage that it took for the girls to perform in this venue. Many confessed to tears while watching their smiles, interactions with each other on stage and "magic" that happened for them during their performance. One of the parents of one of our graduate students was also moved to tears but she couldn't really say why while an undergraduate dance student has decided that he is interested in pursuing dance/movement therapy as a career after watching the piece. One of Columbia's trustees approached me to tell me that she wished to see more pieces like the girls' - and that is a tremendous compliment. I did not expect such a response and the fact that it is present in so many different ways speaks to the special-ness of what occurred on the stage.
While we all feel that the girls really benefitted from the performance and the process leading up to it, our entire community has also benefitted from their performance."
And a final observation:
"I almost couldn’t manage my feelings of gratefulness when I looked out and saw so many arms sharing YMCA with us. The power of mirroring struck me then like never before!
This little group of girls had never danced in synchrony before they started creating the dance that they shared at the concert. They had also always refused our attempts to mirror them – however subtle we attempted to meet them. I never dreamed that they would be able to even pair up to do the same movements much less choose to do the same movements as a larger group and TOUCH each other! They did not have personal relationships with each other or interact with each other much at all until this process started (even after working together weekly for over a year!). Now, they have interpersonal relationships with each other as well as their teachers. It’s quite amazing…."
Thank you Annie for your beautiful presence, experience in facilitating creative process and positive modeling for our girls. They look up to you. We're all grateful for your effort in this student assistantship in community dance.
The DMTC Student/Faculty Dance Concert is a benefit dance concert to raise funds for the Jane Ganet-Seigel Scholarship fund for MA students and Warren Lamb Scholarship Fund for GL-CMA students.
