By Karen Peterson, Karen Peterson & Dancers

Five team teachers from Karen Peterson and Dancers are halfway through their fifteen week residency at twenty Miami Dade Public Schools and have introduced students with special needs to the creative possibilities in contemporary and improvisational dance. Two performances have been set. The first is on March 2nd at Booker T Washington High School and the second is on March 9th at the South Dade Performing Arts Center. The 370 middle and high school students, who also serve as audience members for their peers, are extremely excited about the opportunity to build choreography towards their public performance.

Each class, between 10 and 25 students, help the KPD dance instructor organize their personal movement style and also make music, costume and props decisions.  This collaborative effort allows each of the students to build self esteem, confidence, creativity, communication skills and positive motivation within the group.

For many of these students, who live in inner-city, underserved geographic areas, it is their first opportunity to work with trained dance instructors and to be exposed to the experience of rehearsals in the classroom to choreography on the stage. For teens with disabilities this program is proven to be empowering on many different social, physical and emotional levels