Short Summary
My name is Virginia and my son loves to dance. And we don't mean loves to move around - he loves dance. From the age of 3 we knew Weston saw the world different, he felt it different and he heard it different. We explored avenues to help him control his body movements and his "energy" as it was often called. (His nickname is Wind). We decided to encourage it instead by enrolling him in his first ballet class. At age 3 he took to the stage and fell in love!
At 7 years of age, he now has been asked to be part of 2 competition groups and does tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, and musical theater. And dance has changed his life. However, competition and dance are a financial toll for our family. The studio has been generous and given us a break, and we are doing trade deals for individual classes, but this will not get him to competitions.
We are asking for funding because we don't want his love of dance ever discouraged, and as a boy, BOY HAS IT EVER. We've endured many a comment regarding the fact that he is a young boy in dance and he has too, but he truly doesn't care, he loves dance.
What We Need & What You Get
We are asking for 5,000 dollars for two reasons, so we can pay the studio what they are worth! The teachers at Ryan's American Dance have embraced Weston and have done so much for our family. He spends every afternoon for numersous hours at the studio. They are incredible teachers, dancers, and mentors. Finally, the funds are so we can get him to at least 2 competitions this year and to a 6-week dance intensive program over the summer. We started looking at options at Stanford but we shut it down when we saw the cost. I want Weston to feel the support and love that a boy, at any age, can take on this sport and have the opportunity to share his passion.
The Impact
The impact would be huge for Weston. He would see the world pouring out support for a young boy dancer. We have had many meetings with teachers, professionals, peditricians who have "advised" us about Weston's inability to focus, and I just smile because at age 6 my son did a 3 hour performance with 8 dances and 7 costume change all on his own (you see there isn't usually a lot of help backstage when you are the only boy and there are 50 girls to contend with). The first performance, I wrung my hands worried sick what was going to happen, and he came on like a star and at the end of the night he said "that was the best night of my life, this is what I want to do".
