To get dance to as many different populations as I can, to get more educators to realize the value of movement in the classroom as a learning tool. The key is in adapting dance to whatever population you have. She's flexible and ad libs on her feet. Just as Kaufmann and her student instructors cultivate dance in students with disabilities, they also learn in this class new ways of dancing themselves. Delphine Rose, a senior who has taken the class twice, finds the work inspiring.
Professional dancers spend so much time on technique and getting things perfect.
For people like me, who've been conditioned to move in a certain way, it's a real eye-opener. There's an openness, an honesty with themselves, about where they're at, what they can do, and if something triggers their imagination or their creativity, they're very spontaneous. As a closing exercise in the ballet studio, Kaufmann suggests that the dancers demonstrate a shape with their bodies, first a straight line, then a circle, finally a spiral. She hands out colored streamers, and the students cross the studio, dipping at the knees, whirling their arms, twirling the orange, purple and green fabric. Someone calls out that she feels like a roller coaster, and Kaufmann agrees.