Mia R.
Interests: Dancing, Swimming, Being A Great Aunt
2024-04-26: The Unstoppable Princess
“I am UNSTOPPABLE!” Mia shouted from the center of the McKinney Theater stage as she twirled around with her right arm in the air, right leg popped. Nobody in the audience except for her mother, Corinne, I stood by Mia’s side helping her to release the trembling and overwhelm that consumed her moments prior. We were two days from our actual dance performance and finding enough confidence to be up on stage looking out at an audience, even if all the seats except for one were empty, was the first step in getting Mia to perform her two dances from beginning to end. Hearing the conviction behind her words, I had the feeling Mia would surpass all obstacles that laid before her: a knee injury, challenging choreography with a fast tempo, performing in heels, and having down syndrome. I was thankful for the opportunity to work with Mia as it would force me to carve out the needed time to practice the two pieces we were dancing in together. One being a modern dance entitled, “From these hands grow dates” and a burlesque number entitled, “Family Business” for the Spring 2024 Saddleback College Dance Collective.
“From these hands grow dates”
“Family Business”
A Broadway Star in the making!
My mother attended the dance performance auditions back in January as she loves to live vicariously through me since her father never allowed her to dance. I found it a bit odd when she started waiving me over as we began doing across the floors. “Kate, this is Mia,” my mother motioned, gesturing her hand in Mia’s direction and not realizing we already knew each other from modern dance class. “This is her first time auditioning and I need you to help her.” Trusting in my mother’s intuition, I followed in her guidance and had a sense this wasn’t going to be the last time Mia and I would cross paths in this way.
It wasn’t until the end of the semester when Corinne reached out to me about doing private lessons with Mia. I had observed her throughout the semester as Mia dealt with a knee injury that happened the second week of practice and left her sitting out the majority of the time. I knew I had my hands full, but with Mia’s dedication to want to take the leap and perform for the first time in college, we were going to make it happen.
We met five times over the course of a week for hour-long sessions where I started with the most challenging section, the Charleston, which was in the second portion of “Family Business”. I learned here that Mia had a dream to dance on Broadway someday and knowing this was a move that dancers become highly familiar and good at on the big stage, I wanted to make sure she nailed it.
To help Mia remember the moves, I combined certain elements together and gave them a funny name. As we’d dance together, I would use a soft voice to call out, “hip slaps,” next is the “wave,” now let’s do the “robot”. All of these words indicated to Mia the type of move we were performing in that portion of the dance. This method worked beautifully and I noticed towards the end of our sessions, Mia was performing most of the dances on her own without needing to look at me for guidance.
Because of the high learning curve, not knowing where she was in the various dance formations and the anxiety that goes along with her Down Syndrome, it wasn’t a surprise after the first tech rehearsal that Mia, myself, Corinne, and the director had to come together to talk about the safety of Mia performing, not only for herself, but for the other dancers as well. What I appreciated the most about this conversation was we didn’t give Mia the option to completely back out. We understood instead that we needed to give her choices to stretch her just outside her comfort zone. Therefore, we told Mia there were plenty of opportunities in both dances where she could exit off stage if she wanted to or she could do the entire dance. It was up to her.
The two choreographers for “From these hands grow dates” and “Family Business” really came together in the end to support Mia further by pairing her up with dancers in the different sections of each piece and running through the formations as a group. When I saw Mia looking back at me as we released the blue fabric at the end of “From these hands grow dates”, I felt so much joy. She did it. She made it all the way through. My heart was ecstatic. Being told to act solemn in this dance, I couldn’t help but smile back at Mia as she mirrored my expression.
Then when I saw her at the end of the formation in “Family Business” with her hands framing her face and her left leg popped smiling out at the audience, I couldn’t help but think of the mountain Mia climbed to make it to that point. She really was unstoppable and as Corinne so nicely added, Mia was the unstoppable princess who was supported every step of the way during her first dance performance for Saddleback College. I truly believe in her and have full faith that she will become a Broadway star someday doing the very same Charleston we performed in “Family Business”.
A flower crown I made Mia with a ribbon that said, “The Unstoppable Princess”
Look at that smile! So happy. You go girl!