{"id":141590,"date":"2023-02-21T16:54:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T21:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/?p=141590"},"modified":"2023-02-21T16:54:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T21:54:53","slug":"inclusion-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/2023\/02\/21\/inclusion-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Inclusion Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/files\/2023\/02\/Monroe-dance1-586x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-141591\" width=\"290\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/files\/2023\/02\/Monroe-dance1-586x1024.jpg 586w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/files\/2023\/02\/Monroe-dance1-172x300.jpg 172w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/files\/2023\/02\/Monroe-dance1-768x1342.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/files\/2023\/02\/Monroe-dance1.jpg 827w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Let\u2019s talk about dance competitions. I never knew what all this entailed until we entered the dance competition world 4 years ago. But it is exactly that &#8211; a competition; individuals and teams being scored by judges to try and score the highest. Where does a little girl that happens to have Down syndrome fit in? She can\u2019t do fun tricks and complex moves &#8211; yet. To get her body to do what she wants takes so much more work than her peers (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/downsyndrome101\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hypotonia<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This year, when many dance competition companies added a special needs category, I thought it would be fun to have Monroe perform a solo. She loves to dance and doesn\u2019t seem bothered by being on the big stage. Yesterday, she competed with her peers with no special needs category, but do you know what happened? While we waited for her turn people came and talked to us. Another family with a daughter with Down syndrome couldn\u2019t wait to watch her. Strangers asked what her routine number was so they could watch her. During her performance, the whole auditorium clapped and cheered for her from many studios. She took a competition and turned it into something more than a high score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is why I put her on that stage. She is changing the way the world views Down syndrome. She is advocating for herself. She is showing the world that her disability doesn\u2019t mean she can\u2019t. She <em>can<\/em>, and even though she didn\u2019t get a high score, she brought a group of people together, even if it was just for a few minutes. I am glad <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BournAcademyOfDance?__cft__[0]=AZVmRIT3Y7JG34IUz1iDAAH8eqzSeTK_EZAHAhtDSVfwLT2l8ryKymWPTD4sGaB7016bGvvNXgi2flI860zFpt8INoeBS3BswDRzvr4kPZdtU02S3yNFet4xiXeO_bk-AHU&amp;__tn__=-]K-R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bourn Academy of Dance<\/a> has given her the opportunity to help change the way the world views Down syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-Christina Ziga-Budd, parent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Way to live out your <a href=\"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/best-of-all\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Best of All<\/a>, Monroe! We are all so proud of you! Thank you, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bourndancer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bourn Academy of Dance<\/a>, for letting Monroe shine and providing her the platform to excel!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s talk about dance competitions. I never knew what all this entailed until we entered the dance competition world 4 years ago. But it is exactly that &#8211; a competition; individuals and teams being scored by judges to try and score the highest. Where does a little girl that happens to have Down syndrome fit&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1472,"featured_media":141591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gigisplayhouse.org\/canton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}