A new dance class at Lake Region High School includes students with disabilities. Students are pictured dancing with scarves.

Dance class includes students with disabilities

NAPLES – Dance teacher Carmel Ann Collins has put two years into planning a class at Lake Region High School that includes non-disabled students and students with cognitive and physical disabilities.

One exercise has students moving inside large body bags that conceal them exploring space through shape. Other activities include dancing with scarves, ribbons and the creation of movement stories.

Collins received support and funding from VSA Arts of Maine, a nonprofit organization that works statewide to make the arts accessible to adults and children with disabilities.

The class will last for one semester and may feature a performance during December.

Principal Roger Lowell has supported Collins in developing the course. She said, “This is a progressive step forward for SAD 61 that shows our commitment to all of our students and to the principles of No Child Left Behind. Let us begin a shift of thought and see all of our students in SAD 61 as students with abilities, not disabilities. We are all capable of achieving many wonderful successes, simply in different ways.”