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Husson Students Teach Special Needs Youth to Dance

Published on: March 31, 2025

A group of adults and children stand together on a stage.

Husson University’s Everybody Can Dance program that teaches special needs youth the joy of adaptive dance wrapped up with a public performance at The Gracie on March 29.

The performance was part of the Husson Dance Club Showcase, which brings together the club, the Husson Dance Team, dance classes at Husson and other performers for a night of dance.

Everybody Can Dance is a collaboration between students in Husson’s Occupational Therapy program with the Husson Dance Club to offer free one-hour dance classes to special needs youth in the Bangor area over a four-week program. For the kids ages 4 through 13 participating in the program, there’s a number of benefits beyond just learning to dance.

A group of children and adults dance on a stage with arms out to their sides.

“It provides them socialization with other kids to build the social skills that are part of being in a group,” said Katey Howland, the Doctoral Capstone Coordinator for the OT program and faculty advisor of Everybody Can Dance. “It helps with their self-confidence.”

The program started during the Fall 2024 semester as a research project run by OT students to study the benefits of adaptive dance towards individuals with disabilities. The project showed that adaptive dance provided physical activity and socialization, as well as improved memory techniques and encouraged a better understanding of rhythm.

“It also helps the parents to be around other parents of kids with disabilities,” said Howland. “That was one of the biggest things the students found from their research. There were a lot of benefits for the moms. They could sit and talk with each other while their dancers were in class. Almost like a little support group.”

A group of adults and children dance on a stage.

The free classes had about 30 participants this year, split into two cohorts that met weekly. Howland plans to run the class again twice next year, once in the Fall 2025 semester and again during the Spring 2026 semester.

“I like the community it builds and brings,” said Jasmine Doncet Hall, a parent of one of the kids in the program. “Ella’s already shown me three different friends, and she has a really hard time socializing sometimes. So getting an opportunity like this where the activities are easy, relaxed, and fun, encourages her to really be who she is, and that’s priceless.”

— Rin Gately