Mom’s heartfelt email opens up ballet classes to all children

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Sometimes a simple email, with a simple question, is all that’s required. And Natalia Armoza knows this best.

Armoza always wanted to take her daughter, Pearl, to one of the New York City Ballet’s dance workshops, but did not want to cause a scene. Pearl suffers from cerebral palsy, a disorder that affects body movement and muscle coordination.

“I didn’t want her to be the focus of other people’s stares or comments,” Armoza told Upworthy . “I wanted to really protect her from that.”

Armoza emailed the NYC Ballet, requesting they set up a private ballet workshop, and the response back was more than she expected.

The ballet company, along with cerebral palsy expert Dr. Joseph Dutkowsky, set up four workshops, open to all children living with the disorder. Nineteen children participated in the workshops and the ballet company says it will continue the program in the future, reports Upworthy.

The end result?

“Total freedom,“ says a mother of a young participant in the class. "She can let her body go. She can be the same as somebody else.”

Most children with cerebral palsy use braces or crutches to help them move around, but for dance, Dutkowsky, a doctor at the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center at Columbia University, recommended otherwise.

“This is dance, not therapy,” he said. “Take the braces off.”

One workshop participant summed it up best: “So awesome.”

Watch a short documentary about the workshops below

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