Mpls. Dance Co. Shows There Are No Boundaries In Ballet
CBS Minnesota (WCCO) | April 2, 2011 | By Cassie Bonstrom
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — In a small studio in Minneapolis, Leah Nelson is helping her students master a bourrée turn. But really, she’s teaching them much more than ballet moves. She’s teaching the girls, who all use power wheelchairs, that they can be dancers.
“I like to move to the music,” said Mary Kate Bigelow of Rosemount. “It’s always been my dream.
”The girls taking one of the classes at Young Dance have various types of a neuromuscular disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA. Their cognitive skills are unaffected, but their muscles are weak and their bodies fragile.
For many of them, it’s their first formal dance class. And while they can’t dance on their feet, they can use their power chairs to do the same moves.
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