After some successful networking, grant writing, and important support from the Council of Dee Fellows, Jump Start was born. It’s a transformative and first-of-its-kind community building 10-week dance and word play workshop for people with Down Syndrome and their families. The classes were led by Geber Handman and Bond, with the assistance of several University Modern Dance students, and was captured on film. The participants with Down Syndrome weren’t the only ones who benefitted from this first set of weekly gatherings. Family members who had ached for inclusive activities deeply cherished the time spent together. The University students walked away with life-changing experiences, as well, and several have graduated to go on working in this niche. One of the University teaching assistants, Amanda Newman, remembers a pivotal moment with one of the families. “We were all just rolling on the ground laughing,” she said. “It was this huge realization for me of: this isn’t us giving something to them or creating an opportunity for them. It’s these families opening their doors.” With the first workshops’ resounding success, in came additional support from Utah State Office of Education and Assistant Dean for Arts Education and Community Engagement, Kelby McIntyre-Martinez, which facilitated the completion of the documentary film, the creation of a new teaching methods course for Modern Dance and Special Education students, and the implementation of a new course of workshops to be held in the community. One can almost hear the sound of the original goals being checked off. And then some. “This work is not about teaching a particular style of movement,” Geber Handman says. “It’s about finding ways that special education students don’t have to be the ‘special ed’ students; they can be part of the larger fabric of society. It’s about seeing people for who they are, appreciating their differences, and then guiding them in a way that provides new experiences, new information, and new opportunities.” ≠ Geber Handman (left) participates in an activity called "Passing the Love" with the Jump Start attendees.
Jump Start Celebrating Difference 6 STUDIO / 2016
Photo: Twig Media Lab
by Marina Gomberg
Every child welcomed into this world is special. Each comes with their own set of unique quirks, likes, dislikes, challenges, and strengths — and all of them have the potential to change the world with their presence. Such was the case with Julian, the son and second child of Pamela Geber Handman, Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Dance at the University of Utah. Julian was born with Down Syndrome, among other beautiful attributes, and has widened Geber Handman’s paradigm in profound ways, including inspiring new explorations in her work. When Julian was born, Geber Handman had been teaching at the U and living in Utah for 11 years. That was preceded by her successful career as a professional dancer and graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (BFA in dance) and University of Washington (MFA in dance, emphasis in education and kinesiology) where she engaged core interests: dance, health, and teaching. Julian would be the impetus for those interests to converge yet again. When he was born, Geber Handman says, her family connected almost instantaneously with new professional services, friends, and families. One such person was Melissa Bond, a writer who also has a young son with Down Syndrome. The women bonded quickly, but neither knew then what powerful impact their friendship would have on the world. “During that time, I came to really struggle with the word ‘disability’,” Geber Handman says. “ It separates instead of includes, and it implies a lack of something. Yet, we all have special needs, we all have individual gifts and strengths, and we all need help in various areas.” But the reality is that students with special needs are almost always segregated from typically developing students. That division feeds the general population’s unfamiliarity with Down Syndrome and restricts the students with Down Syndrome from the diverse array of course offerings — including, oftentimes, access to artistic experiences. Geber Handman and Bond dreamt of a remedy. The two wanted to use art and education to build community, and to create spaces that facilitated a greater understanding of difference — not minimizing difference, but celebrating it. Their overall goals were three-fold. First, they wanted to create the workshops and provide direct and immediate services to the local community. Second, they wanted to capture the essence of this work in a film, to more broadly educate the community about the importance not just of arts education, but inclusive education. The final goal was to take the program to other communities within Utah and across the country.