👧🏼GILLIAN

Good morning, dear reader; today I want to tell you the story of Gillian.

Gillian is a seven-year-old girl, and she cannot sit still at school. She keeps getting up, gets distracted, drifts off into her thoughts, and doesn’t follow the lessons. Her teachers are concerned, they scold her, punish her, praise her the few times she pays attention — but nothing works. Gillian doesn’t know how to sit still, and she just can’t concentrate.

When she gets home, her mother punishes her too. Her mother believes she can’t ignore the child’s behavior. So Gillian not only receives bad grades and punishment at school but also at home — as if the punishment and humiliation of being shouted at in front of her classmates weren’t already enough.

One day, Gillian’s mother is called to the school. The woman, as sad as someone expecting bad news, takes her daughter’s hand and goes to the meeting room. The teachers speak of illness, of a clear disorder in the girl. ADHD doesn't exist yet, but maybe someone would have given little Gillian medication.

During the meeting, an old teacher who knows the girl and her story arrives. He asks all the adults — the mother and the teachers — to follow him to a nearby room from where they can still see the child. As they leave, he tells Gillian to be patient, that they’ll be back soon, and he turns on an old radio with music playing in the background. As soon as the girl is alone in the room, she gets up and starts to move, her feet and heart chasing the music in the air.

The old teacher smiles, and while the others look at him, confused and pitying — as people often do with the elderly — he shouts:

"Look! Gillian isn’t sick — Gillian is a dancer!"

He recommends the mother enroll her in dance classes and tells his colleagues to let her dance every now and then.

The girl attends her first dance class and when she gets home, she simply says to her mother:
"They’re all like me — no one can sit still!"

In 1981, after a beautiful career as a dancer, after opening her own dance academy, and after receiving international recognition for her art, Gillian Lynne became the choreographer of the musical CATS.

A kiss to all the different children

Wishing that they may find, along their way, adults who can embrace them for who they are, and not for what they lack.

Receive a hug from the heart, and don’t forget to share.

💛💛💛💛

#BeYourself
#EmbraceDifferences
#CreativeKids
#LetThemShine
#DanceIsLife
#EveryChildIsUnique

#NeurodiversityMatters
#NotBrokenJustDifferent
#EducationNeedsCompassion
#SupportNotStigma
#DifferentNotDeficient
#SeeTheChildNotTheLabel

#FromTheHeart
#StoriesThatInspire
#HealingThroughArt
#LoveOverLabels
#KindnessFirst
#ThePowerOfUnderstanding

#GillianLynne
#CATSChoreographer
#TrueStory
#DanceChangedHerLife