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The Alessendre Special Needs Dance School and it's dance company the Larondina Dance Company
In its 14 years' existence the school has won wide recognition, nationally and internationally, for its ability to uncover the latent talents in people with special needs so as to develop well-adjusted and confident individuals more able to lead active, happy and fulfilled lives.
Although most of the school's pupils are Down's Syndrome youngsters, the innovative curriculum can be readily adapted to embrace all learning difficulties.
A critic from the Dancing Times, Britain's most prestigious journal devoted to classical dance, wrote that the school is achieving "remarkable results".
Several years ago Angelina Alessendre created from among her pupils a dance troupe, the Larondina Dance Company. It acts as a showcase for the school's work and has won standing ovations from audiences in many parts of the country. In London it has danced at Her Majesty's and the Prince of Wales theatres alongside stars from musicals playing at that time.
As a consequence of such high-profile national exposure, a demand for details of the school's work has developed internationally from parents, teachers, doctors and academics.
For example, the company was invited last year to Moscow to demonstrate that for many special needs youngsters their condition need be no bar to a full and useful life. In Russia 90% of children with Down’s Syndrome are placed in institutions at birth. More than 45% of them die before their first birthdays.
The visit was arranged by the British Moscow-based charity Downside Up, the only centre of its kind in the Russian capital offering early intervention for Down's Syndrome children. The charity offers training to the medical profession, and to parents and carers. In hospitals it works to keep children with the family.
The company's performance was very enthusiastically received (the stage was pelted with flowers), and was shown as part of a television documentary about those with Down’s Syndrome. As a result of the excellent work of Downside Up, the institutionalisation process is slowly beginning to change, and we hope that our performance contributed in some way towards this.
The company's next overseas visit is scheduled for later this year to Ecuador. Ex-President and until recently Ambassador to Britain, Señor Sixto Duran Ballén witnessed some of the school's work and decided it could benefit his country, and he is eager to help us to organise this trip.
The school's financial resources, however, impose strict limits on development. With appropriate funding much more could be achieved. Angelina would therefore be immensely grateful for any ideas on possible sources of finance. If, for example, schools were to devote just one hour a week to teaching the Heavey/Alessendre method, valuable progress would be made. Those teaching our basic dance syllabus need not necessarily be dance teachers, but they must be people with a passion for doing the work. And, of course, it costs money to train them. The dance troupe's many talents were highlighted by the Dancing Times' critic, who wrote in a two-page article titled "Meeting the Challenge":
'The class I watched began with a short barre of plies, tendus. releves, port de bras and toe taps to the front and side, and moved on to stretches and simple turns at the centre, and then to rehearsal of several of these sequences. All worked hard for the full hour, accepting her command good-naturedly and correcting their position as she suggested.
"One boy surprised me by turning two perfect cartwheels and then turning his head in satisfaction right on the musical beat. But 1 was also surprised by the variety of steps the students had mastered, the elegant line the girls achieved in arabesque, and the genuine affection displayed by each pair of partners."
Angelina Alessendre attributes much of her success to her late and great mentor, Dr Ronald Heavey MBE, founder of the renowned St Helen's Special Needs Dance Company which, over the years, won much national and international acclaim for its brilliance. It danced across Europe and even in the White House in Washington.
Dr Heavey unstintingly gave his time, his immense talent, his love and a great heart to transforming the lives of special needs youngsters. He named Angelina as a safe pair of hands to further his pioneering work.
She sets out to create in her classes an atmosphere of normality and fun, an objective reinforced by one of her new students who had previously attended a variety of therapy classes. He told her: "I'm sick of being theraped" -- a novel but telling variation on a word.
The school uses a structured syllabus based in part on the work of Dr Heavey and partly on Angelina's years of experience in dance and its necessary modification for special needs pupils. It differs little from any ordinary dance class. Ballet, jazz, pop and tap are used to choreograph dance sequences. The music has particular significance for special needs people. They relate to it automatically and with great enthusiasm. With firm but good-humoured discipline, patience and, above all, total empathy, students' attention is held throughout the classes until they ultimately gain mastery of the steps.
Once the session ends, the school hall becomes a kind of club where like-minded students gather to talk and laugh about matters of common interest. This in no way runs counter to current thinking that integration within the mainstream community is the best way forward for Down's Syndrome people. Most of the school's pupils are well integrated at school and in the community. There is a place and time for integration. As important as it is for special needs pupils to spend time in a mixed environment, for both social and educational purposes, it can be counter-productive as a general routine, because it will put too much pressure on the special needs pupils while hindering the progress of the others. This can also cause a feeling of inadequacy in those not equipped to keep up with the pace that other pupils can, and may cause these pupils a loss of interest as a result. But Angelina's experience has been that pupils gain enormously from knowing they have one place they can use socially (and they love to socialise) where everyone is on the same footing. Long-lasting friendships are made by those facing similar challenges. Parents, too, are able to mix and empathise with one another.
As class-work progresses it soon becomes apparent that movement skills have gradually improved, intellectual development has blossomed from the mental effort needed to master the steps, and by performing alongside their peers a sense of togetherness has been promoted.
With these enhanced intellectual and social skills plus parallel physical improvements -better posture, balance and co-ordination- have come communication, concentration, co-operation -- all of them indispensable life skills which have created that most vital of qualities -- a heads-up confidence, fostering a greater self-sufficiency at home, at school and, for some, at work.
The earlier apathy has disappeared, the poverty of physical awareness has changed for the better, new friends have been found, and an appreciation of, and acceptance by, the wider community has been born. These new feelings of happiness and fulfilment are well highlighted in a video that has been made of the school's activities. Copies will be supplied as needed.