The joy of dance.
- To feel the music, to move your whole body,
to express yourself.
- Performers and volunteers at the Fort Collins
Modern Dance Company, Dance Express, are celebrating
thirty years of encouraging everyone to dance.
- Janine Trudell of Tail Wind Media takes us
into their studio and onto the dance floor.
- [Mary] Dance is really about self expression.
We're able to interpret through our body
and bring it out into the world.
- I feel free.
- Dancing makes me feel good.
- [Mary] The mission of Dance Express is to
improve people's lives through creative dance experiences.
We're opening the doors for people to have that
opportunity to express themselves.
- Dancing with Dance Express is the highlight of my life.
- [Mary] Dance Express is a modern dance company
for people with and without disabilities
in Northern Colorado.
We were founded in 1989 as a part of workshops
to give arts access to people with disabilities
in the Fort Collins region.
(upbeat music)
As an occupational therapist, I feel like I'm really
bringing something of significance to others.
And you don't get to do that all the time.
- [Mary] I love dance.
I do like being the one who says what to do.
There's a little bit of that.
- [Student] Mary Elizabeth is the best teacher.
- Okay, I want you in the middle of the stage, back up.
- [Mary] Michael just loves to dance, yeah.
- I've been dancing in Dance Express since 2006.
My dance style is pretty good and I'm very good talent.
- [Mary] So Michael, he's exuberant.
Sometimes he's like I don't want to do anything
but when he gets that music and he gets out there,
he brings the music alive.
- Sometimes my legs will move and all of my
body is pretty good doing dancing moves.
I'm a very good dancer.
- [Mary] Sometimes we say people have a disability
and we maybe pigeon hole them as
a result of that disability.
It's kind of the truth that all of us have a disability.
I believe everyone can dance.
One of the dancers started with us and
she was only fifteen years old.
- I am (mumbles) Dance Express 30 years now.
- [Mary] She is a good leader and when we have
gone to different schools, she can help be a teacher,
she can create choreography,
she can really express herself.
- [Lisa] I've been dancing with the
Dance Express ever since 1997.
- Four years.
- I don't know how long exactly.
- I'll say sixteen years.
- [Mary] A lot of my dancers they already
have the dance in them.
- My body challenges me saying keep dancing, keep going.
- [Student] I hear the beat and my feet reacts.
- [Mary] And what they're learning in Dance Express
is how to work with one another.
How to actually communicate non-verbally.
- [Alva] It's rhythm of the beat
and move our whole body.
- [Lisa] I started dancing when I was in fifth grade.
I took a ballet class and jazz and ballroom.
- [Student] When I dance, I feel free to do Dance Express.
It makes me happy and peaceful.
- [Student] When I dance on stage, I am grateful
of dancing in front of an audience.
- It felt great to have audience watching me
and my friends, family.
- Dance Express has given people of different
abilities the chance to express themselves
as they would like and we perform in theaters.
Give them a chance to go somewhere else and be someone else.
It is a privilege for me to be the one to
watch the new movements happening to see
what can really emerge.
(upbeat music)
(group chatter)
(clapping)
- I feel so full of joy after watching that story.
It is a beautiful celebration of dance and art
and also the elation that comes along with sharing it.
- Even better news?
Dance Express plans to expand its services in
Northern Colorado, they have performances scheduled
throughout the year.