Sunday, March 11, 2012

Dancing Through the Day




On Friday we delivered the new studio number signs to Gotta Dance Studio and they came out great! It's such an improvement from the roughly painted numbers that were on the doors. It was really nice to be out of our own studios as well and get to socialize with someone other than each other. Not that we mind it-we love hanging out together, but we often don't really see anyone else. The twins also enjoyed the outing, running around in all the open space and very nicely keeping themselves occupied while we worked.



It was especially nice to do this job, because this dance studio has a special place in my heart. When my daughter was 3 she developed a very severe stutter and went through several years of speech therapy to overcome it. As I think everyone can imagine, stutters can severely damage confidence and self esteem and are brutal to overcome (and often never are). Her speech therapist warned us that it would most likely only be managed and never cured. I was determined to get her through it with as little emotional damage as possible. I started to think of talents that she could develop that didn't require talking and dance naturally came to mind. It was also something she had an interest in, so it seemed like the perfect fit. Angela checked around and found Gotta Dance Studio and we got our girls enrolled that same week.

 
Samantha and Sydney before their first recital, June 2008


All of the teachers were so wonderful with Samantha and if they noticed her stutter, they did an amazing job of not showing it. Her classes gave her so much self confidence, which is the one thing she needed most. It's been 5 years since her first class and her stutter has been quiet for some time now. I know those dance classes were a huge part of her overcoming this huge obstacle in her life. I will always be grateful to Cindy and all of her instructors for what they did for her!

Jennifer