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A Very Special Ballet Class
A physical therapist was inspired to use the joy of dance to help special-needs girls find their inner ballerinas.
By Joe Treen Excrept from: Ladies Home Journal

Joann Ferrara's weekly ballet class starts the way most sessions of this sort do: at the barre. Her 12 students, little girls in pink tights and tutus, do their plies and arabesques, their tendus and jumps. "Arms by your side. Arms up again," commands Ferrara, who seems to be everywhere at once, offering pointers and encouragement. "One arm forward, one arm up. Look at your fingers. Big ballerina smiles. Excellent job, ladies!"

Ferrara's coaching may seem familiar, but this is no ordinary ballet class. Most of the girls -- ages 3 to 10 -- cannot walk or stand on their own without help. Many need wheelchairs and walkers; most wear leg braces. Two cannot speak. They were born with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, or other neuromuscular diseases. Each moves with the help of a teenage volunteer, who has been assigned to a particular student and trained in the individual needs and abilities of her pupil. Some of the girls can stand and turn supported by little more than a held hand; others are unable to lift even an arm without assistance.

Two things are clear, though, from the smiles, giggles, and excited chatter: The class is a high point of the girls' week. And they worship Ferrara, 50, a physical therapist in Queens, a borough of New York City. "There are few people who do what she does," says JoAnn Chaffardet, whose daughter, Monica, 6, has been attending the class for three years. "She is an incredible lady."

In retrospect it seems as if Ferrara was destined to create Dancing Dreams. The oldest of four children in an athletic family, Ferrara was such a good all-around gymnast at Jericho High School, on Long Island, New York, that she was recruited by the University of Vermont to compete on the school's team. After graduating in 1978 with a major in physical therapy and a concentration in child development, Ferrara began building what is now an 11-therapist practice, Associated Therapies, in Queens.

Along the way Ferrara developed a specialty in pediatric therapy. To make the exercises fun for kids, she would bring in costumes and props and help them make believe they were going on adventures, one of which was ballet class. Several years ago it struck Ferrara: Why pretend? She knew that disabled girls longed to go to dance classes just as their sisters, cousins, and friends did. So she decided to let them play out their dreams -- and maybe throw in a little physical therapy at the same time.

"The therapeutic benefit is secondary," Ferrara says. "These children have the same aspirations of any other little girl their age. They love the tutus and the glitter."

As it happened, Ferrara was expanding her offices at the time. So she elected to include a small gymnasium that's about 20 feet square. She outfitted it with mirrored walls and a dense rubberized floor firm enough to walk on but soft enough to cushion falls.

During the week patients young and old use the space for various types of exercise, but every Thursday afternoon for the past four years it has become a dance studio. Ferrara sets up half-size portable barres near a mural she has drawn with a smiling sun, flowers, butterflies, ladybugs, and snails.

She started small -- five students -- and built slowly from there. She eventually added an annual April recital at the Mary Louis Academy, a nearby Catholic girls' school. The performance features elaborate backdrops and multiple costumes, all made by Ferrara. Each outfit has to be individually tailored; ballet shoes must fit over leg braces; wands and ribbons need special handles or clasps. Ferrara encourages the girls to set goals for themselves at the recital.

Last year, for example, Monica Chaffardet wanted to show her father that she could stand alone with her cane. "He was teary eyed," recalls her mother. "It was very emotional." Many parents had similar reactions watching their own daughters, Ferrara says. "The recital is a celebration of achievement. Every child is successful at her own ability level," she adds. No one has to compete with anyone else.

None of this would be possible, Ferrara says, were it not for the volunteers -- all of them high school girls. Meaghan Judge, 18, a senior, calls the transformation of the little girls "awesome," adding, "from not being able to walk to being able to 'dance': It's amazing."

Ferrara does not see the dance form as simply sugarcoated physical therapy. To her the ballet component of the girls' experience is all about enjoyment and building self-esteem. "I get the satisfaction of making their dreams come true," Ferrara says. "They want to be ballerinas like their friends, and I help them achieve that." When the girls hold this year's recital, on April 29, the event will be organized around a theme that mirrors their dreams as well as Ferrara's: "We've Only Just Begun."

Originally published in Ladies' Home Journal, March 2007.