The Movement Lab, bringing children with disabilities joy through music and movement
Adaptive dance classes are more than just teaching the art of dance. The movement lab was created to bring the joy of dance, music, and movement to people with disabilities.
First Baptist Church in Pineville has opened their doors and Katie and Nathan have opened their hearts by founding The Movement Lab, a free class once a week for children and adults.
Katie February – The Movement Lab – “I actually flew to Boston to take a class about how to teach adaptive dance and it just kind of spiraled from there, Nathan became interested, and we started teaching classes and we’ve been doing it for about six years now.”
Katie and Nathan have a few helpers in the children’s class, dance buddies that volunteer their Saturday morning just to see the smiles on the kids faces.
Issabella Carrington – Volunteer – “I love the kids, I love playing with them, I love dancing with them. It just makes me really happy to be with these kids.”
Olivia Leonard – Volunteer – “It makes them feel like they can be whoever they want to be and just be themselves around, because they just feel so comfortable.”
This class is about more than exercise and smiles, it benefits the participants developmentally
Katie February – The Movement Lab – “Movement for children and teens and adults with disabilities is particularly important because sometimes they cannot verbalize what they want to say and we can do it with movement”
Amandas son Alec is in a wheelchair and looks forward to his time spent at The Movement Lab.
Amanda Patterson – Parent of Disabled Child – “He has Spina Bifada, and this is a great opportunity for him, he gets to come here with Katie and Nathan, he’s been with them for about six years now. He just enjoys coming and dancing around in his chair and they figure things out for him and show him how to move and it’s just, it’s great for his soul and his body and even social skills.”
For more information about adaptive dance classes, you can find The Movement Lab Page on Facebook.