Believe in yourself, try new things and thrive!
From left to right: Nancy from National Ballet School, Hayley and Crystal Every year, Canada's National Ballet School runs the Take the Lead workshop in Toronto. This year, we were thrilled to have Hayley, one of our dancers from Bradford, among the forty young women from across Canada who attended the workshop. It was an inspiring weekend where participants learned how to make a positive impact on their communities through the arts. As it would be a busy 4-day workshop and we wanted Hayley to make the most of it, we invited Crystal Chan, who is an OT [...]
Connecting through dance during a pandemic – by Chiara Mabrucco
This week, Miss Chiara, our Richmond Hill teacher, is sharing with us how dance has impacted her during these changing times. We hope her reflections inspire you to stay positive, keep moving and take control of the things you can! When this pandemic started getting serious, one of my first thoughts was “how will the special needs community I work with be affected by this massive change”? The change of routine, added stress to families who are losing therapies and school, not to mention the increase in challenging behaviour that was surely to be a result of having kids remain [...]
Week 6 of our #KeepDancingChallenge – Are you feeling bored? Let’s shake it off!
On this week’s #KeepDancingChallenge, we love seeing your family members and even your cute dogs joining in! It really shows how dance can bring us together even in difficult times! A special thank you to our dancers, volunteers and family members for helping us spread the joy of dance! You can watch the video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/XCnSzmKNpbM We hope you have fun and keep this music in your mind, “sayin' it's gonna be alright!”
Dancing Through the Coronavirus
Today, Jade and I finished leading our first Facebook Live Dance Class, with our friends at Halton Down Syndrome Association to celebrate National Dance Week! It’s a strange time to be celebrating National Dance Week. As dancers, we are used to engaging with our bodies, through movement and interaction with our environment as well as those around us. Dancers love performing. Performing traditionally involves a stage in a theatre; a theatre that is meant to hold hundreds to thousands of people! It’s a funny thought right now, considering I haven’t left my house in a month. Right now, because of [...]
Dance is a universal language – Interview with Hinano Toda
Hinano Toda, our second international student, and first from the other side of the globe, who volunteered with us this season, is living proof that dance is a universal language. Hinano is from Japan and came to Canada to further her language studies. Although Hinano could speak only a few words in English when she first joined The Dance Ability Movement, it didn’t prevent her from doing a fantastic job as a volunteer. “Through dance, Hinano was able to express herself, connect with our dancers and be a part of our community”, says Mallory Ryan, The Dance Ability Movement Director [...]
Week 5 of our #KeepDancingChallenge – Grab your love ones and just follow after us!
We absolutely love this week’s #KeepDancingChallenge song! Here are some clues: you will need to get real loose, get comfortable, grab your loved ones and just follow after our awesome dancers, volunteers and teachers! Did you guess it? Let’s dance and have some fun with “The Git Up” by Blanco Brown. Check out the video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/ccUnx8TrBmM Let’s give a round of applause to our dancers, volunteers and teachers for creating such a FUN choreography!