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Dark Room Ballet offering free training in ballet, teaching balance, orientation and more

https://www.dance.nyc/

Dark Room Ballet is Krishna Washburn’s specialized introductory dance curriculum for blind and visually impaired dancers. It is a toolbox course that teaches specific skills, including finding balance without sight, maintaining orientation with auditory and foot sensitivity, and self-correction with internal alignment.

Dark Room Ballet is based in both Royal Academy of Dance ballet training and Butoh and classical Japanese dance training. Krishna holds a Master’s of Education from Hunter College and special certification through the American College of Sports Medicine, and has been a movement teacher for blind and visually impaired people of all ages for many years.

Krishna Washburn started dancing as a sighted child at age three. I studied ballet with the Royal Academy of Dance. I was accepted to Barnard College at age 18 and was in a preprofessional dance track. By the end of my first year, I experienced rapid dramatic vision loss. I stopped dancing for a long time. I missed dance a lot, but I didn’t have any life skills; I didn’t know how to walk or open a door.

Krishna believes that blind and visually impaired students not only deserve to learn physical skills, but are entitled to learn them. They have a right to learn dance and movement skills from a teacher with appropriate training and empathy. They have a right to learn physical forms of artistic expression, so that they can self-actualize. Learn more.