By Molly Magennis
A local dance school teacher has been awarded LG’s Local Legend award to commemorate her contribution to the community in the form of an all-inclusive dance school.
Alyshia Clarke opened up the all-abilities dance school, Dance 4 all, in Footscray earlier this year.
With a background in education, dance and working with special needs children, Alyshia saw that there weren’t many recreational opportunities out there for kids with disabilities.
“In the time that I spent in social development schools or special settings I could just really see that children had a love and a joy for music and for dance and for creative arts, and just how much impact that would have on their learning,” she said.
“I got trained in dance, I grew up dancing so I had that background as well and the more time I spent with these children and with their families at the school I started to kind of see that there really wasn’t anything out there for them.”
“They were all feeling very isolated, and it was just really sad for me to see them missing out.”
Alyhsia began thinking of a way she could put all her expertise together, and how she could incorporate dance with the therapy that children with special needs often require.
“I started thinking … how can we start to work on their goals from their physio and their [occupational therapist] and how can we combine that,” she said.
After a bit of trepidation about actually starting her dance school up, Alyshia is proud of the safe community she has been able to build with the children and their parents.
“We have understanding for the kids, the kids can make connections with each other, the parents can make connections with each other and form really positive relationships through the program.”
The Local Legend can see how confident the children at her school have gotten since they started dancing but does acknowledge that there is still a stigma attached to disability.
“I think I just wanted to prove to everyone that these negative stereotypes, we need to break them down and anyone can dance. Everyone deserves to dance regardless of your ability or disability or who you are.”
