Natasha Johnston
My toddler spent a full year attending Adaptive Dance classes at SLAD. It was such a positive and growing experience for my child, and a great bonding experience for my child and my husband to participate in together. Because of our very positive experience here, I was able to share our experience in other communities of varied abilities that we participate in, even bringing a friend along for a season. Despite these strong and positive connections, we will no longer be participating with this dance program. This season, when I went to register for the class, our course was not listed as being offered. This came without notice or without anyone reaching out to our family, despite our close connection and community outreach on SLAD's behalf. I truly feel this is a decision based fully on low attendance, a decision fully motivated by financial reasons, despite my being informed that " Our schedule typically adjusts year to year due to class demand, availability of studio space, and teacher schedules.” (The instructor is still teaching the same adaptive courses on the same days and times for other levels of learning). When working with children and in a community of individuals who are so used to doors being closed in their face, this was a shocking and devastating move, not only to our family, but to a community so in need of resourcing and advocacy. I strongly encourage those looking for adaptive classes for young children look elsewhere, and we will not be returning.
