This ballet company prioritizes the mental health of its dancers

At Azara Ballet, dancers are not expected to make eye contact with directors and choreographers. If band members need an impromptu break from the vivid stage lights during rehearsal, they take it. They also receive clear instructions on hair and makeup well in advance of their performances.

Priority at Answered is the health of dancers. Founded in 2022 by dancers Kate Flowers and Martin Roosaare, who are autistic (and married), the Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida-based company is a haven for neurodiverse performers. (The company consists of 10 dancers, not all of whom are neurodiverse.)

“When I dance,” Flowers said, “as long as it’s in a good environment and a unthreatening space, expressing myself through non-verbal movements helps me a lot.”

Azara fills a gap in the world of dance: the need for spaces where people suffering from autism, ADHD or other conditions falling under the broad term “neurodivergent” can freely experience this art form. Evidence, both anecdotal and empirical, suggests that there is a profound connection between dance and neurological conditions. In recent years, these relationships have become the subject of increased interest among researchers, artists and performing arts organizations.

In November, Azara gathered for a performance of her show “Voices of Azara” at the black box theater where the show would soon take place. The atmosphere in the theater was both lively – dancers warming up, reviewing steps, talking – and tranquil: there was subdued lighting, pleasantly frosty air, and among the performers a seemingly innate awareness of the loudness of their voices.

To begin rehearsal, Roosaare presented the dancers with a schedule for the next three hours. They then reviewed four articles – all authored by company members – before receiving their notes. While the dancers were performing, the music was never too deafening and corrections were never shouted.

But for the most part, rehearsal wasn’t much different from any diminutive dance company’s rehearsal. But what makes “a world of difference,” said autistic dancer Rebecca Kimsey, is the level of humanity and care in the studio.

“Martin and Kate were very accepting and also very understanding of everything that came up,” she said, “like when I wake up one day with an overstimulation migraine.”

She added: “If we’re in rehearsal and things are moving really swift, we still don’t shout out the corrections, which can worry or scare people if they’re paying attention.”

Flowers said she has always been attracted to dancing. “Especially with autism, having structure is really helpful,” she said. “Dance really delivers that. It makes sense why I was drawn to dance and why I continued to be.”

Research confirms these experiences. The results suggest that dance may be extremely good at complementing the strengths of people who are autistic or have certain neurological conditions, while also alleviating some difficulties.

Dr. Jessica Eccles, a researcher at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in England, studies how certain conditions overlap. hypermobility (greater than typical range of motion) and creativity. “Attention to detail, memory, passion, thinking outside the box – all of these things are probably useful traits for dancers,” Eccles said. “A huge percentage of dancers may be neurodiverse but may not be recognized; they may not have diagnoses.

Julia Basso, director of the Embodied Brain Lab at Virginia Tech, provided further evidence of the link between dance and neurodivergence by measuring brain waves. Among a group of musical theater performers, most of them with autism, dancing and performing have been shown to raise intracerebral synchrony – that is, the neural connections in the performer’s brain – as well as interbrain synchrony, that is, the connections made between multiple people. This suggests that dance may play an crucial role in things like social connection and reducing anxiety, Basso says, which are common challenges.

Roosaare and Flowers observed the positive impact of dance on a group of preschool-aged autistic students enrolled in Azara’s Atypical Dance Initiative. Roosaare said students usually have difficulty concentrating in school during the day, “but when it comes to dancing, they always pay attention and engage.”

While Azara approaches inclusion with the dancer first and foremost, most companies focus primarily on the audience. For example, Modern York City Ballet recently hosted a sensory-friendly performance of “The Nutcracker,” and another sensory-friendly event is scheduled for May (a Balanchine triple bill). Other companies have also implemented this practice, mainly with The Nutcracker season.

“Audiences felt welcomed, supported and didn’t feel judged,” Meghan Gentile, associate director of education at City Ballet, said of last spring’s sensory-friendly performance. “We’re having more conversations about how to make all of our shows a little more accessible. A novel lens was cast on our work.”

At Azar, all performances are developed with neurodiversity in mind. The Lumberyard Center for Film and the Performing Arts in Modern York is taking a similar approach with its Seats on the Spectrum accessibility program, designed for uncomplicated implementation in theaters. The pilot version, which debuted in October, can be seen at the Modern Victory Theatre, Here Arts Center and Roundabout Theater Company.

Adrienne Willis, executive and artistic director of Lumberyard, stated that “while separate performances and separate festivals are fantastic and reach so many people, they do not reach the right amount of the population.” She added that Lumberyard was interested in making accessibility “more economically viable for theaters.”

At many of these events, audiences are provided with sensory kits — fidget toys, earplugs, noise-cancelling headphones — and a visual and textual description of what to expect from their time in the theater. Less crowded seating areas are often designated for neurodiverse audience members, and during a performance, the house lights are never completely dimmed, the lighting and sound effects are not subdued, and guests can come and go as needed.

These may seem like large changes. But dancer Azara Kimsey said that when some of her friends come to these performances, “They tell me, ‘I can barely tell the difference;’ I didn’t know it was a sensory-friendly day.”

But she added: “For those who need these changes, this is a lifesaver. It connects you to something you may otherwise never witness.

The next generation of dance artists are developing tools to also take neurodivergence into account. At the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California, Patrick Corbin, associate professor of dance practice, teamed up with a neuroscientist and an occupational therapist, as well as neurodiverse theater performers, to create a course called Dance and Neurodiversity/Autism.

Corbin hopes that by combining learning, movement and social engagement, students will learn how dance affects the brain and better understand these conditions as a whole.

“We’re developing dance-based strategies using all of these things to see how we can learn more about walking in someone else’s shoes,” Corbin said. “Instead of dragging autistic people into our world, maybe if we entered their world we could find a bridge of connection.”

As Azar tries, it becomes obvious that the goal is to connect. Each dance piece has a clear meaning or story, and the moves the choreographers choose are neither too muddy to be understood nor so literal as to seem negligible. The dancers move confidently, with a sense of abandon and flow; they are in their element.

“For me, choreography helps express emotions,” Roosaare said, “it allows you to show certain feelings, emotions and ideas that are usually a little harder to convey to people.”

“I feel like there are a lot of undiagnosed people with autism in the dance world for whom dance is a means of expression.”