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Rockin’ & Ridin’ for Autism
Autism Canada
The start of C’s love of breakdancing
IÂ wrote about what it was like to watch C do a freestyle piece at the battle, (found here) but I haven’t written about all the stuff that occurred prior to that. When he was about 3 years old, I started to put him into various activities for fun, socialization, and for the varied experiences that each activity would give him. He’s been in Lacrosse, Karate, Gymnastics, Soccer, Swimming Lessons, Tap dancing, and Hip Hop dance lessons through our local community centres.
He liked Hip Hop dance lessons a great deal. He said he wanted to learn more, but the class offered through the community centre was a basic class, and he’d just finished it. So I decided to look for a dance studio that taught hip hop.
Right before I started checking out dance studios for a hip hop class for him we went to an event hosted at our local art gallery called: First Fridays. Each month on the first friday of the month they host a free, open to everyone event where they showcase different types of art including music.
The one we went to that night had a group called the Geek Freaks. They were a dance group that did breakdancing among other styles and it was love at first sight for him. He was super excited watching them, and when the announcer said that anyone that wanted to could come up and dance, well of course C went up. From that moment on he was adamant that he wanted to learn how to breakdance.
I looked into various studios that were local to us and happened to find out that one of the members of Geek Freaks taught at a studio only a kilometre away from us. That settled it for C, that was the studio he was going to go to. Ironically enough he wasn’t taught by the guy from Geek Freaks due to his age but an instructor by the name of Michael. Out of all the programs I’ve enrolled him in, never have I been as thankful for not just the program itself but also the instructor that taught it. To be fair, C’s had some fantastic instructors prior to this, but there’s just something about Michael (or Bboy Tricky Troublez as he’s called in the breakdancing scene) that is unmatched. C is in his second year of lessons with him, and it’s been one of the best things to occur in his life. Michael teaches him more than just the physical moves, he’s helped to instill a sense of confidence within C that nothing can touch. He’s someone my son looks up to, and for my darling Anarchist that’s quite a feat! (I LOVINGLY call him my Anarchist because he’s always asking “why” he needs to listen to rules, or grown-ups in general. He doesn’t do it in an angry or violent manner, just an honestly curious one about why he needs to do ____ just because an adult says he should.)
Michael “gets him”. He’s patient, and calm with all of his students including C. He works with them to develop their own personal styles and strengths while helping them to improve in the areas they are not naturally strong in. He breaks down each move piece by piece to help all the kids he teaches. I’ve heard the saying before “Those that can’t do; Teach” But that’s not Michael, he’s a fantastic break dancer himself, and can still be found regularly at various competitions competing himself.
Tomorrow morning C will be officially competing at a dance competition with a breakdance solo that Michael has choreographed and taught him. I know he’ll shine, in part because this is his passion, and because he’s had such an amazing teacher to help him learn how to turn his passion into action. đ
He danced while I cried…
Tonight I cried while he danced. He looked like poetry in motion as music became movement. As fast as the bass that was pulsating through the speakers, his feet became a blur as they almost flew across the floor and through the air.
I watched and I knew in my heart this right here right now, was what he was born to do. It wasn’t just the ease with which he watched another contender and added their moves to his own freestyle piece. It was so much more than that. It was the way his eyes glowed with certainty, for he KNEW what to do. He “gets” how to translate music into movement. For all the confusion he still has in various social settings, put him on a stage or dance floor and crank up the tunes and watch the joy and sense of rightness that glows from within him.
Sweat soaked and muscles burning from exertion and still his smile illuminates his own starburst eyes that are so much like my own. It’s almost like the combination of music and movement unlocks some secret special place within him, and you can almost physically see everything “clicking” inside his mind for him. Like the movement pushes the confusion and anxiety that often plague him completely out of his mind. While the music pulsing causes synapses after synapses to occur in places that didn’t communicate properly with each other prior to that moment. For those few minutes on stage you can see how centered within himself, and whole he truly is, and it’s more beautiful than words can describe.
It’s his version of “therapy” for in those moments on stage he feels joy and acceptance in who he is. There, right there, my boy who has been judged for not being able to stay still, for randomly twirling or flapping his hands when he’s having a sensory overload is judged on how well he can move,
Behind starburst eyes 