Shake it Up! An Advocate’s Dance Blog

This is a Dance blog by Maya Greengus, GiGi’s Playhouse Madison’s first board member with Down syndrome. Check back often to hear more from Maya, as she plans on sharing throughout the year – here and via our social media channels. 

The power of dance in my own opinion feels like conversation and connection with one another. Being on stage centers my confidence. I can give it my all knowing that my feet are grounded and rooted to something I enjoy being a part of. It gives me joy! This is a picture of me when I was in ballet. You can tell from the glimmer in this little girl’s eyes that she wanted to go far in ballet. But as I kept growing up, I wanted to try something else for a change. 

I got involved with jazz and tap as I was going into middle school to see how capable I was of doing faster movements. It feels like fun exercise when I fully commit myself to that style. As I kept developing in those two dance genres throughout high school, I got into musical productions such as: Honk! The Musical, Mary Poppins (Chimney sweep person), and Billy Elliot (ballet girl) which is about a guy who wants to embrace dance in his everyday life. The more I can learn fast movements like in tap dance, the better my chances are of getting into musical productions. 

Dance is an example of: actions speak louder than words. When you do something you love, surround yourself with others who enjoy it as much as you do. Dance is like a bond you make with a friend, it’s connection.

Here are some pictures of the dance connections I’ve made through Vibe Dance!

The way I want to wrap this blog up is to talk about what makes dance special and memorable for me. Sharing the stage with my sister means a lot to me because I get to be backstage and watch her thrive – she smiles, has fun and showcases all of what she knows as a dancer. I know she would say the same thing to me because we support each other. Music and dance bring us closer. Ever since we were kids we would play car karaoke where we take turns singing. It’s a good way to spend a road trip when we are bored, sitting on our phones. Before our Wii system broke, we would play Just Dance together. We even did it as a family at our beach house in California, with my brother not long ago. What I’m saying is: when me and Jena dance together, it’s so much more fun!