Read the related story— EVERYBODY DANCE Filmmaker Interview —Daniel Watt
Moving the body-sized scissor prop she has created for her auditory processing-challenged students, autodidact Bonnie Schlachte watches them intently. As she opens and closes the scissors, the students are meant to follow suit. They do.
We watch a newbie student who likes to vocalize loudly get reward tokens for being quiet. It’s a skill they need to develop before the big ballet recital in four months time. They do.
While their peers likely think of nothing more than getting likes on TikTok, these earnest teens buddy up one-to-one to give their young partner a sense of calm. They do.
For more than an hour, we watch such victories accumulate until the final performance— a much anticipated ballet school recital.
If you too can remember the thrill of a first tutu and the ecstasy of making your tap shoes keep the rhythm, you know just how electric that dance school recital can feel. Imagine though that your dance school is the only place where you feel you truly belong. Picture also that you love to dance, even though just walking is something barely in your reach.
Suppose too you are one of the parents in the recital audience, a somewhat wearied warrior always fighting to give your child joy in a world where others just see them as different. How fitting that the theme of the recital is light, which is exactly what you had found in at the Everybody Dance Ballet School.
EVERYBODY DANCE Is a Story of Love— and Expertise
From beginning to end, Everybody Dance filmmaker and one-time professional dancer Daniel Watt puts a dagger in your heart and lump in your throat. It’s a non-stop celebration of possibility— with a sentimental Hollywood ending, middle and beginning. We meet one after another parent or grandparent who runs the marathon of caring for their differently abled child. Watts’ lens is at work throughout to say without saying— Hey don’t these beautiful children — like ALL children— give you joy?.
For this reviewer though—- writing at a time when we’ve been assaulted yet anew with cringeworthy admonitions to pregnant mothers to never take Tylenol —Everybody Dance is a reminder of what REAL WORLD EXPERTISE looks like via the person of Bonnie Schlachte. Most of us, if not all of us, have never heard her name before. Her first stroke of genius was to found a ballet school where all are invited to learn and dance. It does not stop there. When we see her peer over the life-sized scissor prop she has created for the swathe of her autism spectrum students who struggle with auditory processing ,we glimpse her polymath spirit at work. We hear her inner thoughts ever monitoring to find the secret sauce of what works. Every child is an encyclopedia to be studied and mastered. Her expertise is breathtaking.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Images courtesy of EVERYBODY DANCE
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
