[blindkid] Update on Musical
Heather
craney07 at rochester.rr.com
Sat Jan 23 22:43:17 UTC 2010
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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