Sight-Impaired Gain Sense of Themselves

Challenged to invent a personal movement for each sound in his first name, Brian Owen ran into the center of the room, turned a somersault and sprang gleefully into the air.

“Now what are we going to do?” he asked, laughing.

Brian, 7, was one of six sight-impaired children from the Castille Elementary School in San Juan Capistrano who attended a workshop Friday for those who work with the handicapped. It continues today at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The workshop is sponsored by the county Department of Education and Very Special Arts U.S.A., an international organization founded in the 1960s to give training in the arts to the disabled.

More than 60 educators, physical therapists and dancers from Stockton to San Diego came to observe the training methods taught by Carol Penn, an arts and education coordinator for the Washington-based organization.

“The purpose of the workshop is to expand the horizons of the blind and visually handicapped,” Penn, 29, said during a short break Friday. “These are people who often experience some degree of inhibition in being outwardly expressive. This workshop helps them explore movement and share what they do--and in that way gives them a sense of directing their own fate.”

The program, conceived in 1983 by choreographer Alvin Ailey, founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City, consists of guiding the handicapped person, often with a partner who can see, through a series of exercises that interpret emotions.

“Improvisation is the main tool we use,” Penn said, “and whatever triggers a student to respond.

“For younger kids, the emphasis is on creativity and imagination. For older people, it’s still on expression but is more technique-oriented.

“What we hope the kids will take away is a new sense of a whole body image as well as an increase in self-confidence, poise and a sense of freedom.”

Whatever the adults’ intentions, the kids expressed no doubt that they were just having a good time.

“I don’t want to leave,” said Amanda Sharp, 11.

“I want to keep dancing,” said Lisanne Larson, 6.

“I wasn’t afraid,” Brian said. “It was fun.”