Celebrant Pam Vetter


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Infinite Dreams: Zina Bethune Offers the Arts to Children with Disabilities

Pam Vetter
March 26, 2009

American Chronicle Article

When Zina Bethune speaks about the Infinite Dreams program, her eyes light up. With a great ability to see endless possibilities, Zina started the Infinite Dreams program in 1982 to make dance and drama available to children with disabilities.

Zina has been dancing and performing since the age of four. "If you never wanted to do anything but dance, I guess you're born with some sort of gene that says 'gotta dance.' Dance is something that I've always been passionate about. I love the acting profession in film, television and live theatre, but I've gone through a lot to keep dancing, so my biggest passion must be dance."

At the age of 12, Zina started volunteering which allowed her to see outside of her own world. "I was volunteering at different organizations such as Retarded Infant Services, Arthritis Foundation and Muscular Dystrophy. Informally, I was working with kids and I found myself dancing with them. I didn't have a formal curriculum then. When I was 14 or 15, I realized I was a soulmate, because I was born with a lot of disabilities that didn't show up right away. I never thought of myself as disabled because I had already been in a profession since the age of four. By the time I was 12, I was starring in a television series. But, there was a voice deep down inside me that realized that I belonged in that world as well. I knew then that I wanted to create my own company one day and I also wanted to create a formal program in the arts for disabled children."

After starting a dance company in New York City, Zina moved to Southern California where she started a second professional dance company in 1980. And, she had ideas.

"We were going to be the very first professional dance company in America to create a participatory program for disabled youth. That was to bring professional artists into schools and community centers, and bring the art as it is, not some watered down therapy program. We were the first company in America to do it. We have been proudly copied worldwide and there is a massive Arts Disability Movement now. There are only a small handful of companies helping children with disabilities. We've been the leader and I'm exceedingly proud of that," Zina reinforced. "It really did grow out of my own life as someone who was born with disabilities and didn't know it. The passion for this art transcended my own limitations and I really felt, if it can do that for me and I can retain a professional career, which I have, I can help others. For me, even through 11 surgeries, some of which were guinea pig surgeries in Denmark, I was told I would never dance again but I did. It's been a lifetime for me trying to find a way to reinvent this wheel, but the passion to do that has really transcended what my own problems were medically. I thought, why in the world wouldn't that work for these special children, and indeed it does."

Honoring her vision and following through on Infinite Dreams, Zina has witnessed the many things that children gain through dance.

"There is a lot of self-empowerment in dance," Zina reminded. "It enables finding a voice from which you can speak, because society doesn't give you a lot of venues to have a voice when you're dealing with a disability. When you have a disability, it isolates you and closes a lot of doors without even trying. Disability itself seems to narrow you down. Dance and the arts provide an arena to show who you are. There's no right or wrong in this, it's just who you are and a way to have a voice and be expressive and that's self-empowering. So many kids, years ago, all they had to look forward to was being on welfare the rest of their lives and not being in the workforce, not being part of society and not being that productive. Society has changed a lot in the last 20 years, when we started, it was pretty myopic. The ADA is only about 18-years-old. That didn't even exist when we started. There wasn't art in the schools when we started either. But, certainly for the disabled community, there wasn't anything like this. There were programs that used music, but there was nothing that said to them, 'You can have a voice, you can dance, and you can move. However you move, that's your own special way of moving and that's you. If you're with a wheelchair, then your wheelchair is part of your movement. It's not separate from your life, but part of your movement.' The other thing dance accomplishes (this was said to me by one of our students) is that you're not personified by your disability. That is a very important thing to learn, because when you have a disability that is what precedes you in other people's eyes. Society and people tend to personify you by your disability. So, it's very hard for persons with disabilities not only to understand, but to get a true sense of themselves that defines them outside the disability. When there is something like dance and the arts, it bypasses that mentality and you can understand who you are."

The Infinite Dreams program has an incredible 7,000 graduates. "I'm pretty proud of that. We have 800 to 1,000 students that we teach over the course of the year, but it depends on the economy as to how many schools we can be in. We go to many different schools in Hollywood, North Hollywood, Orange County, Pasadena, Long Beach, and we're going to have a new program at the Long Beach Aquarium, which is going to be fun. We also visit certain community centers as well. It's harder to reach out to many communities and parents to show them that this is something their children can do."

Infinite Dreams has used two instructors with disabilities: Zina and actress Teal Sherer. "All of our dance instructors are professional dancers. There are professional actors like Teal who help with our drama program. I think it's wonderful she wanted to start teaching because it's very important for the kids to see how mobile she is and anything that she needs to accomplish she can. Even for kids who are not in wheelchairs, I think it's been very meaningful for them to see how productive she is."

Instructor Teal Sherer loves the program. "I have a lot of admiration for Zina. Children with disabilities are rarely exposed to dance and drama, and in many circumstances don't think that they can do it. Zina is proving to them and the rest of society that they can. It's life changing for a lot of them," Teal said. "Zina asked me to teach last summer after I started dancing with her, and I went through her teacher training program. So far I've mainly been teaching drama classes. I've found that kids with disabilities respond very well to me because I have a disability. For example, there was a young girl in a wheelchair that never wanted to dance - she was very shy. I went to her class one day to help ZIna teach and the girl immediately lit up when she saw me. She studied me the whole class, watching the way I moved with my wheelchair, and then copied me. I don't think she'd ever been exposed to a dancer in wheelchair and watching me gave her the confidence to dance. It was very rewarding to know that I had an impact on this girl. I've found that the kids I teach that don't have physical disabilities are very intrigued by my disability. I'm very open about it and let them know that they can ask me anything. Kids are very curious and it's good for them to be able to ask questions and learn more about what it is like to have a disability."

While there are thousands of uplifting stories that have resulted from the program, Zina's favorite story is about a child named Diego.

"He used a walker and he'd been dancing with me about two years when this occurred. After class he started asking me, 'Do I dance okay?' I said, 'Yeah, you're doing fine.' About the third time he asked me, I asked him what was going on. Whenever we'd be in class, I'd take the walker away from him and find other things for him to partner with such as a chair or another student. He got used to the idea that he's not married to the walker. He said, 'Well, I've been thinking. If I can dance okay, why can't I walk?' I asked him how many months he had given himself to walk without the walker. He said, 'Four.' In four months, he did. I congratulated him and I asked him what he was thinking. He looked at me and said, 'Nobody ever told me I couldn't dance, they only said I couldn't walk.' That's become our logo. If anything epitomizes the program, it's that. He could dance, but he was told he couldn't walk. So, he figured out from working with us that he had the power to change that and he did," Zina said. "I don't advertise that we're about miracles, because that's not what the program is, kids aren't going to throw their crutches away. But, that's such a perfect example of what this program accomplished for this child and many others. We bring in the tools, we bring in who we are, and we bring in the art. Children have to find out who they are and Diego was a perfect example of that."

Looking toward the future, Zina believes in growth. "We, and a small handful of people, are the pioneers in his field. I hope we continue to be a pioneer leader. There are several things we are undertaking now. First, we're creating a system by which we'll be accredited and can in turn give teachers accreditation so they can graduate and expand the program. Secondly, we plan to start our own academy for all differing abilities because there really isn't such an academy with a high professional standard with a curriculum for people with disabilities. Finally, we plan to form an apprenticeship program for our Infinite Dreams students to apprentice with the main company. That also doesn't exist anywhere. There are many things we feel strongly about. As we were one of the pioneers in dance and multimedia, we want to continue to pioneer new forms and are hoping to build our own performing arts center. The center will have many unique features which will also be the first of its kind."

Zina admits embracing a new vision has not been an easy journey, but the programs have flourished. "We took a lot of flack for wanting to do multi-media in dance, way back when everyone was a little more purist about it, and we took flack for Infinite Dreams. People said, 'Are you crazy, Zina? They're not going to think you're a professional artist anymore because you're just working with crippled kids.' And, I took the flack because I knew it would come into its own one day. Maybe it took 20 years, but it did come into its own."

When asked about her legacy, Zina paused and offered a few honest words. "We oftentimes plan our legacy and then it turns out to be something different. I think my legacy will be how disabled people's lives are different because of what we brought them and what they found through the program." Zina added thoughtfully, "How better to move on?"

For more information about Zina Bethune and Infinite Dreams visit www.bethunetheatredanse.org or call (323)874-0481.

Pictured: Zina Bethune and Teal Sherer

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