I had the opportunity to witness a brilliantly
executed theater performance about living with Dyslexia, a learning disability. The performance was performed by a nationally
known dancer named Lida Winfield.
Winfield was first diagnosed with Dyslexia when she was in middle school. Her hour long performance allowed her to
share her life experiences with the learning disability. Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes
it hard for students to distinguish between numbers and letters. People with this disability have fluctuated
symptoms making it hard to read. One day
she can read a novel with minimal errors, while other days she can’t even make
out some of the words. She stated that
she often found herself “drowning and swimming” throughout her life and
struggled to find the balance between them both in order to grow. She gave many examples of when she found
herself “drowning” in school and felt that she was good for nothing. She explained that all the negative remarks
she got in high school about her Dyslexia is what pushed her to focus less in
school and more on her passion for dance.
It wasn’t until she enrolled in a college, which was meant for students
with learning disabilities in Vermont, that she started “swimming.” The small college allowed her to get the
special attention that she needed and she was able to graduate with a master’s
degree in interdisciplinary fine arts.
She has had the opportunity to tour in Europe with the Double Vision
Dance Company. This experience, as well
as being a dancer in the Heddy Maalem’s From
the New World festival is what made her performance strong.
Being a dancer, I have seen many different styles of
dance ranging from jazz to ballet to hula to Bollywood. However, Winfield’s style of dance was
unique. She liked to call her dance
moves as “creative movements” rather than a particular style of dance. Her performance included a lot of talking
(which was needed in order for her to tell her story) and dancing. Since she tried to emphasize her story to the
audience, she focused more on perfecting her storytelling rather than her dancing. At the question and answer period at the end
of the show, she admitted to have improved most of her “creative movements” on
stage. With experience, I believe that
improving is a difficult task. Improving
requires the dancer to let their body to be free by not being afraid of letting
out their emotions. Winfield had a repetition
of steps in her choreography in order to grab our attention to emphasize a
certain point; just like the repetition of words in the novels that we have
been reading in class. Winfield also
used different tactics, such as yelling, to highlight a certain point. On the contrary, she also became silent when
she wanted her words to really sink into her audience. Her use of fierce facial expressions made me
fearful of her at some points. I think
she wanted her audience to feel that sense of shock, fear, and uncertainty to
show that she is strong; even with a disability.
Winfield gave many examples of people that brought her
down as well as people that inspired her.
Surrounded by an educated family, Winfield was always expected to succeed. She stated that she felt “stupid” when she couldn’t
meet the expectations of her sister; having a PhD in evolutionary molecular
biology. However, the one person that believed
in her was her mother. Although we may
think it is wrong, her mother used to do her homework for her so that she wouldn’t
have to face shame at school and at home.
Unfortunately her mother died of cancer when Winfield was in high
school. When receiving her high school
diploma, she realized that she couldn’t even read what was written in the
diploma. She graduated high school with
a reading capacity of a 2nd grader and with the “inability to spell
the word broccoli.”
Winfield’s story telling through her theater performance
was effective in making her audience hear her story. She is an inspiration to all people with a
disability. Her success, along with
multiple failures, gives hope for people with disabilities to not give up and
to pursue their passion. She makes us
realize that there are always going to be people that bring you down by criticizing
you. We just need to learn to turn that criticism
into positive energy and to exert it into something that we truly enjoy.
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