A Residential Shelter for Adolescent Drug Addicts

When I visited in December, a new group of children had just entered Nexus Recovery Center with their Moms.  I joined the children’s class.

Whereas the kids Lynn works with on a regular basis are thrilled to see her - these children were apprehensive of  a new person and what was expected of them.  Lynn got out her "dots" and spread them in a circle on the floor.  Each child sat on a dot - and we began the movement period with music and games.  

The games involved moving with colored scarves and taking turns dancing in the center of a circle when your color was called, Yoga poses, a story book followed by questions about the child's favorite part of the story, stuffed animals (each child chooses an animal and then makes the sound of the animal or walks like the animal), and a piece of Christmas tinsel under which the children crawl/slide/slither and then later jump over.

One of the boys seemed incapable of participating.  When all the other children would sit, he would remain standing and seemed oblivious to what Lynn had asked him to do - and also, totally unaware that the children around him were having fun.  He watched or stared out into space but never participated in the class.  He was not a problem and we would speak to him using his name, but he was unresponsive.  We knew there were no physical problems - it just seemed he couldn't connect.  I turned my attention to others in the room - and later when I looked back, he was sitting on his dot on the floor - smiling - not participating yet - but smiling.  Next time...............

I was so happy to see progress in just that one class, as the children began to meet expectations and participate fully in the movement program - and relax and enjoy the experience..  The feeling in the room went from concern (doing something new) to enthusiasm and smiles.  That’s just how fun Dance To Live is!

Thank you for supporting Dance to Live!  We all need to dance a bit and shrug off life's problems.  One hundred percent of your donations go directly to providing services to the children.  Without your help we would not be able to affect a positive change in these children's lives.  We are grateful.

Susan Parma, President - Susan.Parma@DanceToLive.org