[blindkid] Update on Musical

[Heather]

I wish more parents thought like you.  Replacing the traditional "Tharapies" 
with tharaputic activities that are more social, more artistic, more 
normative and frankly more fun is a great open-minded thing to do.  Way to 
go.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kim Cunningham" <kim at gulfimagesphoto.com>
To: " (for parents of blind children)NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 4:21 PM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Update on Musical


Kayleigh is a very determined young lady. As for her vision - she sees 
nothing in one eye and has a 20 degree field of vision in the other. Her 
acuity in that eye is around 20/100 - it's kind of like looking through a 
straw in one eye. Her vision allows her to "see" some, but a very limited 
amount. The director ended up marking her spots on the stage with tape along 
with tagging certain props with various markers. The dancer who helped her 
with the dance steps actually moved her body into the positions she needed. 
She does not possess natural grace and I'm sure she's not the best dancer, 
but she is making it work. My husband and I have tickets to see her perform 
next week. I wanted to give her time so we didn't make her nervous!
I agree about parents teaching their children dance. I only wish that we 
would have gone that route. It might have made things a little easier for 
her.
We opted to put our daughter into gymnastics when she was young. My theory 
was that this was a type of physical therapy. I didn't want her to appear 
"sick" and constantly being pulled for therapies. Kayleigh was a preemie and 
needed a lot of different types of therapies to get caught up. We also opted 
for piano lessons instead of occupational therapy. This helped her with her 
fine motor skills. I am not recommending that families stop therapies, but 
some typical activities offer just as many developmental skills. Plus they 
get to socialize with other children.
Kim

--- On Fri, 1/22/10, Heather <craney07 at rochester.rr.com> wrote:


From: Heather <craney07 at rochester.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [blindkid] Update on Musical
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Date: Friday, January 22, 2010, 9:46 AM


That is awsum. I was a music major, and I encountered countless problems in 
high school with trying to participate in the musicals, and finally, I just 
gave up. It wasn't worth it to me, to expend all of that stress and 
embarrassment to be on stage, with an unwilling dirrector and an unhelpful 
coriographer, when I could continue with my musical training at the Eastman 
School of Music, after school. Your daughter is lucky to possess some 
natural grace that surpasses the navigational limitations of blindness and 
to have a supportive and driven parent like you. I think it is very 
uimportant to get young blind children into ballet, gymnastics, etc, to help 
them to feel confident and graceful early on, so that when the worry of 
being akward and clumsy does reer it's ugly head, the child will have the 
pre-developed confidence and self esteme to squash it like a bug. May I ask 
how much site your daughter does have? What part she played? I love the
 Pajama Game, especially "You with the stars in your eyes..." Ok, going to 
stop singing in my kitchen. rofl
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kim Cunningham" 
<kim at gulfimagesphoto.com>
To: "Blindkid" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 9:01 AM
Subject: [blindkid] Update on Musical


Good morning all,
I wanted to give you all an update on our ordeal with my daughter's 
participation in her high school musical. I had previously asked for 
suggestions in dealing with a director who wanted to remove her. Last night 
was their opening night performance of "The Pajama Game". My daughter was 
thrilled with the reaction of the audience and everything went well. While 
she has had a couple falls (minor scrapes) while trying to navigate scene 
changes and many extra hours of practice, she danced, and entered and exited 
the stage on opening night with perfection!
Two days ago she received the following note from the main choreographer:
"Kayleigh - I am so proud of you and all the work you have done on this 
show. You are an inspiration to me and all of us! Thank you, I appreciate 
you."
I felt so happy and proud for her. I just wanted to share the "happy side" 
to this story. With persistance and given a chance, our children can be 
successful in all they strive to do.
Regards,
Kim Cunningham
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