 Spark is a dance-ability program here in New England where the first program teaching this method, which is really exciting, and I started it to be, you know, a new option for serving that minority who I believe is, you know, still very isolated. I had been in dance education for all of my adult life and I was seeking a approach that would be more inclusive of all people. I found that a lot of the typical dance techniques that I had been teaching weren't inclusive of children and adults with disabilities and so I, at this time, I discovered Danceability International, which is an organization that's been around for 30 years. It's all over the world and I got certified to teach their method, which I found was absolutely inclusive and that's what sold me is that you can have students that are blind, students who are deaf with developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, all sorts of differences and this method allows for that huge spectrum of differences to exist together. I myself love dance, I'm a choreographer, I'm always looking for ways that dance and specifically the performing arts can be used as vehicles for social change. I think it's really meaningful and important that art still is used for that purpose. So what I noticed about Mitch, my first class with him, is that he says yes to his own instincts a lot. He doesn't second guess his intuition, so that was very refreshing. For me it's actually a skill and improvisation that many people spend decades trying to get to that point and so because he just goes for it and goes for it and goes for it with his own instincts, it was really a joy to work with him and to dance with him because it was like he when he gives other people permission to this do the same. I think dance found Mitch a long time ago this type of expressive dance and he's been doing this for forever, for even like hours, he calls it his workout. Well he has a pretty severe apraxia, expressive apraxia, so he's difficult to communicate with and it's he's difficult to understand. So I think the dance is another way of expressing yourself and getting it out. I think it does in a gasp, I was a dancing king. You like dancing because you're a dancing king? Yeah, I was because it is my blood. Mitch has trouble communicating with people. It's partly the way that his voice works when he speaks often people don't understand what he's saying but he's got a lot going on internally and he's got a lot of desire to connect with people and to share and one of the ways that he connects and he shares is through a variety of nonverbal forms of creativity and communication and music is one of those. He plays guitar and another big one is motion and dance and movement so very regularly he'll start to do these kind of gestures and movements and dance moves and it comes from a really deep part inside of him. This part of him that is so able to go into his body and express himself through movement and play and experimentation all of a sudden he's getting validated through a new context for that. People are seeing his nonverbal forms of communication and telling him that they're astounded at what he's doing and that they're giving him positive feedback about the creative expression that he's doing and that's just been pretty amazing for him because any moment that we can help somebody take the creative expression that they have inside of them that's not typically acknowledged and give them a platform to acknowledge that it's a really special. Mitch's you know vibrant creative he brings an energy that lets you open and connect. There is no what you feel like you need to do as much as you do what you feel. Instead of being in a typical dance class you have your own boundaries and you can even just it's fun because you're with people that you might have never met before and it's a really good inclusion exercise because anyone can do it. So what's really interesting is not only does this method allow for or you know allow and include so many differences it's also designed to be incredibly enriching for professional dancers and professional students of improvisation. One of the hopes is that the experiences like Petra was talking about today like I wouldn't necessarily have been you know friends with it or known the people in this class except we came together and we saw each other and we had this experience together and so now when I see you on the street you know or now I see when there are community there's not this division there's not the separation so that's the hope is that this can carry over outside the I am so excited because really with Kailah and this program we founds like a place where Harper can just bloom and she loves it and I I do I'm trying and I love it and she now she just this totally has motivated her in her she's a freshman at Lincoln Academy and just decided to try out for their guys and dolls and she's going to be on stage tomorrow she's more open to associate with people more open to being around someone she hasn't known for a long time and still she was it's great that they include the special needs kids it's phenomenal I think this is the greatest program I wish it ran all year. Spark has you know given Mitch that opportunity to be expressive and be a dancer in his own community not just on his own you know and that's what we want to just keep doing with all of our students all over Maine you know it's really it's important to bring this work to different places so that we can keep doing that and ultimately we're gonna have a dance company you know that's gonna include individuals like Mitch and really be together and demonstrate what that can can look like. We're really looking to grow our program you know if anyone if there's anyone who would like to get involved either as a teacher as a volunteer as a student if you would like to bring a spark class to your community absolutely get a hold of us sparkdanceprogram.org that's that's what we're doing