Welcome to our latest guest blog post at PatientTalk.Org.  Today Colby Nielsen of MVD Dance tells us about their dance programme for people with special needs and their plans for growth.  (And how you can help!) I know our son , who has autism, derives great benefit from his weekly dance session so this is well worth a  read.

Colby shares “Most activities and programs for people with developmental disabilities are great for many reasons but two big ones that stick out is promoting inclusion and teaching skills pertinent to life.  A key aspect of living your life is socializing.  At MVD dance studio, we have been running a special needs dance program for the last 6 or 7 years.  It helps to show not only the community but our dancers as well that anyone with or without a disability can do anything. The program and the studio came about from a fateful trip to a conference on special needs in school and how to promote inclusion.

The founder of the program and the owner of the studio, Shanelle and Michelle respectively, we asked to attend a national conference due to the success of their partners program at their highschool, Shanelle a Sophmore at the time and Michelle a teacher at the school. The program paired up mainstream students with disabled students to compete in sports and do various activities.  This not only promoted inclusion but broke down barriers in the school and perceptions of the Special Needs department.  Many kids who would tease the disabled students would be entered into the partners program and the results were great.  Not only did they accept the disabled students but they built bonds and friendships.  The students would stand up and defend disabled kids throughout the school and it really did a lot to show everyone at a young age that disabled or not everyone is a person and deserves to be treated as such.

While they were on the their trip to the national conference, Shanelle and Michelle saw a singing group that was made up of people with disabilities.  This struck home very strongly to both Michelle and Shanelle.  Having worked with the special needs program so much they were always looking for ways to support and develop inclusion and education of those with special needs.  Having been heavily involved in dance, Michelle the highschool dance team coach and mom of several dancers and Shanelle the captain of the highschool dance team, before they even returned from their trip they began hatching plans to start a dance program for people with special needs.  In order to have a dance program, they would need a studio to do it at.  Thus MVD was born to house the program the Super Stars. When they returned, they put together a dance workshop for people with special needs.  They told their friends with disabilities about it and worked with the local Special Olympics to promote it through their other activities.  They turn out was decent and they sent everyone home with a flyer for a weekly dance class they were starting.  This was to become the Super Stars.  From this initial workshop, they had gathered just 5 consistent students.  That was all they needed.

The Super Stars began performing as much as they could to help spread the word.  The results were inspiring.  After every performance we have someone come up that says they are affected by special needs in one way or anther and appreciate what we are doing.  Most would like to have their friend, or brother, or sister, or cousin join the program.  Needless to say it has become very popular very quickly and become the largest of its kind in the state.  From our initial 5 we have grown to 20 – 25 depending on the week. While the program has become very popular and we feel a very positive thing in our community and very loved by our community, it has begun to hit two walls.  First being that the space we have is too small to fit the growing number of students wanting to participate.  The second being that we are on a second level and our friend Dillan, and many others, who is in a wheelchair is unable to join because he can not traverse the stairs.

Our eventual goal is to own our own building and renovate it to be as handicap friendly as can be.  Offering not just dance but art  classes and other performance based arts as well as turning it into a day-hab facility for the special needs community in our town.  For now we are looking to gain a larger space and have started a Kickstarter to do it. Kickstarter is a website that you can create a project on to help fund it.  You have anywhere from 1-60 days, your choice, to raise your goal amount, also your choice.  If you become a backer and the project doesn’t succeed your card is never charged but if you become a backer and the project succeeds there are several gifts you can receive based on how much you were willing to back with.

Please take a look at our Kickstarter project and show our program support so we can continue growing it. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/104170557/a-new-home-for-mvd-and-our-super-stars”

Colby Nielsen www.mvddance.com