A gaggle of prepubescent girls stand along a makeshift line in a mirrored studio at the Orlando Ballet School. Some of the girls don’t know their left foot from their right; others get easily distracted and begin acting silly, thus drawing the attention of peers rather than working on plies or jazz steps. The tutu-clad youngsters are part of the ballet company’s pilot class called the ‘Adaptive Dance Program,’ a course striving to encourage children with Down syndrome to express themselves through music, movement, and dance.

“It’s not a ballet program,” said Dierdre Miles Burger, director at Orlando Ballet School, who launched the concept locally this spring stemming from her previous experience in Boston. “It’s a dance program…more of an active and interactive class.” The class, however, does much more than teach a few dance steps to children with special needs. It aims to improve the children’s physical challenges, such as coordination and balance, and teach them life skills, like patience, direction, and teamwork. “It focuses on key coordination issues, like upper and lower body movement, working in a group, identifying right from left, understanding musical rhythm (such as starting and stopping on cue), and balance and posture,” Miles Burger described. “Through the power of their learning, the kids really gain self-confidence and pride in their accomplishments.”

Sharon Helton’s daughter, 7-year-old Shayanne LaRue, made “great strides” after participating in the program. The Heltons live in Davenport and drove two hours roundtrip so Shayanne could partake in the pilot opportunity. While Shayanne had previous involvement in dance, sports, and beauty pageants with “typical” children, her mother explains her excitement to be enrolled in a unique program with children much like herself. “Because she’s getting older, she can’t compete like the other kids, or they (the instructors) are hesitant to let her join,” Helton said. “I have put my daughter out there in the world, but it’s great for somebody to also want to give these kids a chance and offer them something a little slower-paced.”

The lessons of dance instructor and ballerina Randee Workowski quickly get the tiny dancers’ heartbeats up, bodies working, and self-esteem bolstered. Rachelle Oba-Dioso’s 6-year-old daughter, Faith, also participated in the pilot program and is looking forward to joining again this fall. “Ms. Randee is very professional ─ patient but firm ─ and has a soft voice that gives constant praise to all of the kids. At the end of each class, she would give the girls stickers for doing a great job and then approach the parents to share updates or feedback on their child,” Oba-Dioso recalls. “I very much appreciated this gesture.”

The class was a new challenge for Workowski, who swiftly grasped that the children responded differently to particular types of music, preferring the thumping bass of drums over the tinkling of a piano. She also realized the students often needed her or dance assistants to kneel down and make eye contact before understanding the next step. “I’ve taken pride in being able to wear different hats when I teach ─ not just ballet shoes,” Workowski quipped. “We’re running it like a creative movement ballet class. We’ve opened it up to jazz movement and it’s become more fun.” Those programmatic tweaks surpassed the basic premise of the class to get children with Down syndrome to exercise and learn in a fun way.

“Children with Down syndrome are born with several different health issues and so the class is getting them to use their bodies, build bone density, and improve their cardiovascular system,” she said. “The children are also gaining life skills because they have to learn to take direction, wait patiently, and take turns.” Each child was paired with an older student who helped with instruction and staying on task. “They need a buddy rather than just watching the teacher do it. It helps to have somebody place their feet,” Helton said. Her daughter, Shayanne, also unexpectedly improved her speech thanks to the class. Despite having limited dialogue, she left classes using new words like sashay, plies, and ballet. “In all of her other classes, she had never come home and said the name of the movement,” declares Helton. “She was actually getting it and understood the names and purpose!”

Shayanne’s experience is the result that Miles Burger and Workowski hoped to see from the Adaptive Dance Program pilot and the reason the Orlando Ballet School will continue the class this fall with a 10-week session. “Already the response has been really positive,” Burger said. “It’ll be one of our outreach programs.” Workowski adds, “I think it’s probably going to evolve. The children we have now are very passionate about ballet specifically.” The Adaptive Dance Program could also help to identify children with developmental delays who may also succeed in regular dance classes. According to Workowski, the pilot program’s eldest participant (age 10) is naturally talented and displays the skill to be dually enrolled in both courses ─ the Adaptive Dance Program and traditional ballet classes. Workowski shared her recommendation with the girl’s parents, “I think she could keep up. I don’t see any reason why she couldn’t be a part of both groups.” For more information about Orlando Ballet School’s Adaptive Dance Program, visit OrlandoBalletSchool.org.