JOY OF MOTION- Uziah Robinson, Zoey Robinson Budreski’s 5-year-old son, enjoys a freeform dance near a Baltimore landmark. Kids like Uziah with special needs can benefit from special performing arts programs, his mother says.
There’s a special chapter in the book of momhood, says Zoey Robinson-Budreski, and it’s all about sitting in the audience and watching your child twirl around onstage in her first ballet.
Unless, of course, you have a special needs child. Then, she notes, that chapter gets rewritten. Drastically.
“Those dreams just go away,” says Robinson-Budreski, “and it’s really sad when they do. There are new milestones and miracles that you live with.”
As the mother of two special needs children, she’s seen it all — or more accurately, hasn’t seen it all. In particular, she’s noticed a distinct shortage of rec programs and social opportunities for children who want to explore the performing arts. And while some rec programs do exist for children with disabilities, she’d like to see more emphasis on the arts.
“I was a professional ballet dancer for 10 years, and my kids love to dance, but when I started looking around for a dance program that could handle things like children with autism, children with dyspraxia, sensory processing disorders—there really wasn’t anything.”
It’s hard on parents too, she adds. While many parents can drop their children off at soccer or ballet practice, those with special needs children don’t have that freedom. Children with special needs can require intense supervision, and many programs do not have staff members trained to give specialized care, “so there’s no real play groups for them and you don’t get to go out that often and it becomes a very lonely world.”
Maybe, if this were anyone else, the situation would simply have led to depression. But Robinson-Budreski is already a Baltimore entrepreneur, having started the Graceland Park-based A Pawprint in Heaven, a pet cremation service for pets (in which she counsels bereaved pet owners and helps them through the maze of unpleasant procedures that follow a pet’s death. That business is doing just fine, thank you, and it should tell you something about Robinson-Budreski — when she sees an obstacle, she presses right through it).
In this case, she wasn’t about to let a little thing like lack of programming stop her from seeing her kids participate in dance classes. Robinson-Budreski formed Maryland Danceability Special Needs Performing Arts, llc, which she describes as “a dance class for all abilities.”
The program will be presented on Saturdays and Sundays for ages three and up (all the way up through adulthood, she adds) at Jess’s Place Studio of Dance, located in Dundalk.
The program will accommodate those with the challenges and disabilities meantioned earlier as well as those with mobility limitations, developmental delays, Down Syndrome, vision and hearing impairments, speech delay and more.
So far, 10 participants age three to adult have signed up and Robinson-Budreski says all are “very, very excited” about the chance to be involved.
“We want to give them a little taste of the performing arts,” she notes. “We’ll be doing everything from ballet to jazz to hip-hop to creative movement. We’ll have music therapy tachers, we’ll be doing drumming, we’ll have a visit from a theater group — there should be a lot going on for everyone.”
Registration is ongoing, and those who are interested can e-mail specialneedskids@gmail.com, go to the website of http://danceability.webs.com/ or call 443-278-5502. There is also a facebook page (Maryland Danceability Special Needs Performing Arts, llc.)
She’s excited about helping the participants explore the arts, and about letting parents see what their children are capable of. Oh, and by the way, the end of the program will feature a recital. Just like every other kid gets.
“Really, as a parent, your dreams shouldn’t have to be crushed because you have a special needs child. And as a child, you should be able to do anything you want to try. I just want those hopes and dreams to come through for everyone.”
BY MARY HELEN SPRECHER, NEWSROOM@baltimoreguide.com
This is going to be a wonderful experience for all who participate. Zoey’s huge heart will wrap around everyone of her performers and will ensure that everyone feels they are the star of the show … because they are!