Most classes don’t instruct their students to leave their shoes at the door, but that’s not what makes this class special. Past the shoes and inside a room in the basement of Sullivant Hall, a unique set of 12 non-Ohio State students are warming up for their hour-long dance class.

For Ally Bowden, a fourth-year in dance, this class is part of her senior project. She leads in a warm-up exercise, raising her knees and waving her arms.

Carol, a shy African-American woman with short, silvering hair, clutches at the hand of one of the volunteers.

A young man named Jeremy, who has informed everyone that he’s turning 25 March 9, is being twirled around the circle in his wheelchair by Dave Covey. Covey is a professor in the dance department at OSU and one of the people responsible for bringing the ARC dance class to OSU five years ago.

ARC used to stand for “Aid to Retarded Children.” It is now one of the adult services branches of the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Jackie Boyle said. She is the art facilitator of ARC and has been involved in the program since 1993.

“This is like a day program for adults with disabilities. It includes fun stuff and vocational stuff,” Boyle said.

The “fun stuff” includes horseback riding, bowling and this dance class at OSU.

“That hour at Sullivant Hall is just magical every week,” Boyle said. “I am always shocked, amazed and surprised at what happens there.”

The group at the wooden ballet bar has a range of limitations. Two people are in wheelchairs, and other participants have varying levels of physical limitations. Some have seizure disorders, others have Down syndrome and one of the participants is deaf.

Ally decided to make the ARC dance class a part of her senior project after seeing them perform in the “Dance Downtown” show her sophomore year.

“They just lit up the stage, and they were so genuinely happy to be performing. … I said, ‘I need to get them to perform again,'” Bowden said.
Bowden has been participating in the class since Spring Quarter of 2008.

Covey has let her take charge the last two quarters for her senior project, which means that Bowden leads during the class and devises exercises for the students.

“Any dancer has their movement preferences,” Bowden said as she explained that the exercises are designed to push the boundaries of their preferences. For example, Jeremy and Dan are taken out of their wheelchairs to “roll like waves of the ocean” across the room with everyone else. And Carol, who never used to go down to the floor, will now lie on her back and wiggle her feet in the air.

“Socially, I’ve got to say that they have all grown so much. It’s pretty phenomenal how much more sophisticated they’ve become,” Boyle said. “Adam never used to dance with anyone. … Now I see him dancing around the floor with all those dance students.”

Bowden wants to impart different levels of lessons.

“On a physical level, definitely increased range of movement as well as increased awareness of their bodies. … On another level, creative expression,” Bowden said.

Bowden hopes to find something like the ARC dance class in New York to be a part of when she moves there after graduation. After she graduates, Covey will resume leading the class.

“It’s something I want to expand, I want to develop a curriculum around it,” Covey said.

He said he wants to take some time off to take intensive workshops for certification.

“I want to learn more about it from a clinical standpoint… [but] I don’t want to get too clinical with it,” Covey said. He also wants to study the conditions of the participants in order to better know how to reach out to them.

“I’d also like them to get out dancing in the community more for people to see,” Covey said.

Bowden’s senior project, which includes a performance by the ARC students, will be open to the public at Sullivant Hall at 1813 N. High St. the evening of April 14 and the afternoon of April 17. Times and prices have not yet been determined.