Mickela Mallozzi: You got spunk, girl.

Woman: She does.

Mickela: Yeah.

I feel like we should arm-wrestle later.

And you're going to beat me.

Dancer: Yeah, I am.

[Laughter] Mickela: I'm a dancer, and I'm a traveler.

And wherever I go, I experience the world one dance at a time.

I'm Mickela Mallozzi.

and this is "Bare Feet."

♪ "Bare Feet" is supported in part by... Announcer: Bloomberg Connects gives you a way to experience the arts from your mobile phone.

You can explore hundreds of cultural organizations from around the world anytime, anywhere.

Learn more at bloombergconnects.org or wherever you find your apps.

Announcer: Additional funding was provided by Koo and Patricia Yuen through The Yuen Foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by the Ann H. Symington Foundation.

Announcer: The island of Ireland.

You should always listen to your heart.

Fill your heart with Ireland.

♪ Mickela: Welcome to a very personal episode of "Bare Feet."

We have always featured diverse stories, including dancing and making music with disabled artists around the world.

I grew up in the disability community.

My sister Adriana is a wheelchair user and has cerebral palsy due to complications at birth.

The disability community is the only minority group that any one of us can become a member of at any point in our lives.

On July 26, 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA, was signed into law, protecting people with disabilities from discrimination, from voting to parking and other aspects of public life.

But is it enough?

In this episode of "Bare Feet," I ask the question, What does accessibility really mean here in the United States for disabled artists, educators, and audiences?

My first stop takes me to Cleveland, Ohio, home of the Dancing Wheels Company.

Dancing wheels is a professional physically integrated dance company, whose lifelong mission is to educate, advocate, and entertain through compelling, innovative dance.

Its company members are both disabled and non-disabled dancers.

The Dancing Wheels Company & School were founded by Mary Verdi-Fletcher over four decades ago, before the ADA was signed into law.

Singer: ♪ And I'm feeling good ♪ ♪ Fish in the sea ♪ ♪ You know how I feel... ♪ Mary: I wanted us to be of the highest artistic caliber, to be equals to any other non-disabled dance company.

So we're in our 44th season.

Mickela: Wow!

Mary: We tour throughout the world, and we oftentimes are educators as well.

So we'll do masterclasses and workshops.

Mickela: Today I'm here in the Dancing Wheels studio for training, created by Mary and her team for dance educators and teachers to learn how to make their own dance classrooms and dance spaces accessible.

Instructor: Exhale.

Take it in.

Inhale.

Out.

Different instructor: We are training teachers how to work with their students using our method.

Mickela: We are learning the process of translation for wheelchair users and other disabled persons, also referred to as sit-down dancers.

Instructor: We're never saying to someone who's sitting down, like, "Oh, do--Bend your arms like this because I'm bending my knees like this."

We think of it, what's going to be most beneficial for potentially somebody's body.

Different instructor: I saw a great translation with Mark alternating between arms.

This might be beneficial for somebody who has a limb difference.

Mary: If you're in a wheelchair and you want to take a quote, unquote "normal" dance class, there's very few--few to none that are available.

We're offering that insight and that mind-set on how you can create an inclusive class.

Different instructor: 6.

And arch and curl.

Yeah.

And open.

2.

Yeah.

Watch here in the second that you don't--fall out, OK?

Keep that in mind.

Mickela: [Laughs] Instructor: Did you almost slip?

Mickela: I did!

[Laughter] Instructor: We say you're not in the club until you actually fall over, so...

Different instructor: This will be a pull back as I triplet back.

So using the hands on the push rims, pull and slightly arch the body, if that feels comfortable for you.

Push forward, triplet, and back, pulling.

Push, spiral right, push, spiral left.

And rest.

Yes.

Mickela: Mary, I have a whole new respect for what you do.

I mean, I've always respected what you do.

But this is a whole other level.

Mary: We want our non-disabled teachers to come in and use a wheelchair not as an assumption of a disability but as a tool of mobility.

Instructor: That's it!

Beautiful.

Michaela, what are you feeling?

Mickela: It's hard.

Ha ha!

Oh, my gosh!

Ha ha!

It's a whole new part of my brain being turned on, which is amazing.

Mary: Yes.

Mickela: How long have you been involved in the Dancing Wheels family?

Dancer: My mom used to dance for the company.

So... Mickela: Oh, my gosh.

Dancer: Yeah.

Mickela: So what was that like, growing up watching Dancing Wheels and your mom dancing in Dancing Wheels?

- Oh, I mean, it's like, what inspired me to become a professional dancer.

I mean, dance should be for everybody.

Different instructor: There's not one choreographer I've talked to who's come out of working with Dancing Wheels, who hasn't been like, "Wow!"

Like, "I have such a different perspective of what is possible for dancers and for me as a choreographer."

Different instructor: I really believe in this company.

I believe in the methodology, and I believe in its capacity to change people's lives.

Mary: There just isn't a space more accessible than the dance space.

You can be who you want to be.

You can be somebody different.

You can glide across the floor.

There's no barriers.

So it's really an element of freedom that most people don't have the privilege of experiencing.

Mickela: Thank you.

Thank you.

Instructor: Yay!

Mickela: Next, I head to the Dancing Dreams Studio in Bayside, Queens, in New York City.

Dancing Dreams is a dance program for disabled children, and today I meet with founder Joann Ferrara and her very first student, Veronica Siaba, to learn more about their incredible work.

Joann: Around.

Around.

Around.

Around and push... Mickela: Veronica, you are the impetus for this entire school.

Veronica: I appreciate that.

I personally feel like you're giving me a little bit too much credit.

Mickela: I don't think so.

I don't think so.

Veronica: But four years old, I was a patient at Joann's pediatric physical therapist's office.

She had seen me in my tutu and my tiara that day, and she--For the first time, someone outside of my family told me that I look like a dancer.

And I told her I wish I could be a dancer, but I can't because nobody wants me in their classes.

But she did.

So she started her own.

Joann: What four year old should matter of factly say, "No one wants me"?

So we started in the back room of my office, pushing everything to the side once a week, and it just kind of took off.

Clearly, we were providing a service that people were looking for.

Mickela: Yeah.

Hi, Ari.

I'm Michaela.

Nice to meet you.

Oh, you got a nice, strong handshake.

I love it.

So, Marlee, as a helper, what's our job that we're here right now?

What are we supposed to-- Ari: To make me not fall.

[Laughs] Marlee: Pretty much.

Joann: And circle around... and circle.

Circle...and turn around.

Mickela: Yeah, Ari.

Marlee: Yeah, Ari!

Joann: Good job.

OK. Marlee: Oh, man.

Amazing.

You're amazing.

Give me a high five, girl.

Mickela: That was awesome!

Christopher, you are an awesome dancer.

Amazing, amazing dancer.

Christopher: Thanks.

Mickela: I love it.

What's your favorite part of the class?

Through speech-generating device: Everything.

Mickela: Everything.

Singer: ♪ Come on, baby ♪ ♪ Let's do the twist ♪ Joann: Everyone dances.

They just do it in their own way.

They dance within their own individual capabilities.

There are no right or wrongs.

It's just the pure joy of movement and having fun.

Leah: I got you.

I got you.

Dancer: She's got you.

Singer: ♪ Round and round and round... ♪ Leah: I didn't think I could ever dance because of my disability, but when I came to Dancing Dreams, I saw so many different people with so many different conditions.

And just seeing them enjoy life, I think that was the most important thing for me.

This is my last year.

I'm a senior in high school, so it's bittersweet, but I've been here for 12 years and I've seen the program grow so much, and I've seen so many kids come and feel comfortable and really feel accepted with themselves and the way they communicate with other kids their age.

Mickela: So 12 years.

So that means what, you were 6... Leah: I was 6 when I started.

Mickela: Oh, my gosh.

Leah: Yeah.

Mickela: Your daughter is unbelievable.

What did you see initially when she started coming here?

Leah's mother: We just saw how, you know, she was able to relate to so many other kids as she came, and she started coming out of her shell.

And slowly but surely, she started making goals for herself.

We're now feeling like Leah can do anything.

Leah: I'm the national ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, so I recently just came back from Washington.

Mickela: Hey!

Leah: Yes.

And I got to speak to senators and congressmen and women.

Mickela: Oh, my gosh.

We need this!

This is where accessibility starts, is through policy change.

And you're the future of that.

This is amazing.

Joann: Down.

Up.

Good.

And jump.

Jump.

Veronica: Accessibility changes something from being this really high valued, exclusive thing.

This is something that's high value because people can access it and because it's open to everybody.

♪ Joann: OK. Free dance.

Dance with your helpers.

Dancer: I'm ready.

Veronica: Starting this class, I didn't feel like I had to be working against my body.

I could work with my body.

I didn't have to prove that I was enough because I was enough.

And that's why Dancing Dreams is so important.

Mickela: My next stop takes me to Brooklyn to meet with Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson, founding members of Kinetic Light.

[A buoyant undercurrent of strings] Laurel: Kinetic Light is not a dance company.

Kinetic Light is a disability arts company.

You don't just come in to one of our shows and plop down and take what you are given or not given in the case of many disabled audience members.

We invite you into a relationship of making choices of how you are going to experience this.

[The cello yearns sweetly] Alice: We're not just, like, making a work and then adding audio description or adding something in.

What we're doing is making the work in such a way that it becomes access because the relationship between us onstage and the audience is part of what we are focusing on in the creative process.

[Strings swell, sharp and shrill; an air of intrigue settles] And that brings out a second question, which is the relationship between access and technology.

Laurel: We've been working with software development and embedded devices from the beginning of Kinetic Light, because in order to deliver the level and quality of access we wanted, that has meant creating our own systems to do it.

Mickela: Kinetic Light's systems to make their art accessible for audiences also include an innovative and revolutionary virtual reality experience entitled "territory."

Alice: "territory" is an aerial performance in virtual reality that is accessible through captions, through vibration, through sound, through music, through poetry, through verbal description, through prose.

Mickela: So it's literally a VR experience within sort of the disability scope.

Alice: Rooted in... Mickela: Right.

Alice: speaking to, created for.

[Shimmering metallic echoes] Laurel: You're going to get to experience some of our haptic devices, because we have a brand-new system going out for its first deployment.

Alice: We're not using technology to supplement a gap.

We're using tech as a form of artistic expression in itself, and that the tech and the access go together.

Mickela: Aah!

[Laughter] Mickela: That was so intense!

I'm going to cry.

It was really amazing.

[A lullaby of strings; soft thuds on the marley] Laurel: Even tech as simple as the "DESCENT" ramp, when we were talking to set designers, you know, people were like, "Oh, but that's too steep."

You're missing the point.

Alice: They wouldn't take the project because it didn't have railings on it because they thought we needed protection.

Laurel: This is not an access ramp.

This is... Mickela: I would hope not.

[Laughter] It is definitely not ADA-compliant.

Alice: But that's the point.

Mickela: Yeah... Alice: But what if access ramps were ADA-compliant, were beautiful?

Like, what if they were-- if they gave the same kind of pleasure and the same kind of momentum and that same kind of grace?

[Tires squeal against the marley; Mickela laughs, claps] Mickela: You guys are flying at my face.

When you look up Kinetic Light, it says "For Us, By Us."

Can you explain what that means?

Alice: The work is created by disabled people with disabled people imagined as the primary audience.

Laurel: We are making in vibration, in sound, in movement, in light, in audio description, in sign language, in many different media of what we might call performance, and art is access.

The reality right now is that most works are going to have their access created after the fact.

We can recognize that.

We can help move people towards that, and we can say also, "That's still not good enough."

Alice: That's what we call equitable, aesthetic, and cultural access.

There's no use being showing onstage if you aren't really being able to create the work in a way that is meaningful for as many audience members as possible.

Mickela: To see how technology continues to be at the forefront of accessibility, I head to Denver, Colorado, to take a Feel the Beat dance class.

Instructor: Let me see you dance.

Let me see you dance.

Mickela: Feel the Beat is a dance studio dedicated to making the experience of music possible for all, including those who are deaf, hard of hearing, and those with or without disabilities.

Open to all ages, Feel the Beat classes feature a bone conduction dance floor, where students are able to feel sound through vibrational energy that embodies the experience of music in an inclusive platform.

Instructor: We are going to start with moving our head, then we'll move our shoulders, then we'll move our arms.

We'll move our ribs a little bit and a little bit of our hips.

Cool?

All right.

Let me get some music.

Here we go.

♪ Mickela: Oh, my God.

[Laughs] The whole floor is vibrating.

Julia: So the sound is coming directly via bone conduction.

That sound's starting in your feet, and it's vibrating all the way up your bones until it gets to your skull.

And then the vibrations of your skull are starting the waves in your cochlea, so that your auditory nerves can fire.

Mickela: I'm sitting here, right?

And now that more of my body is touching this floor, I feel the vibration all the way through to the top of my head.

You hear it.

You, like, feel it everywhere.

[Laughs] It's amazing.

So for students of Feel the Beat who can't hear, they still hear the music?

Julia: Depending on what type of hearing loss they have, they might.

Yeah.

So this becomes their giant hearing aid.

Jari: We weren't just going to stop at teaching the classes in sign language.

We're like, "No, we have to figure out a way to make music differently, accessible in a way that's never been done before."

There were just such few accessible programs.

We just saw the joy that it brought to both the students and the families.

Like, having a place that was created for them, not them trying to morph in and integrate into a different kind of environment, but having an environment that was totally adaptive and made to suit their needs.

Julia: Like, it has nothing to do with the two of us being geniuses... [Laughter] understanding, like, how to accommodate for every unique thing that we see.

It's that the students and the clientele here continue to teach us what we need to be doing.

Instructor: Hip.

Drop.

Good.

Hip, hip.

Drop.

Mickela: When the music turns on, what does it feel like for you in your body?

Dancer: It feels like the song is, like, coming up in the air on your body, though.

Mickela: Yeah!

Instructor: Good.

Again.

Hip.

Mickela: Why do you guys like coming to this class?

Dancer: Because we learn sign language and we get to meet new people.

Mickela: Mm-hmm.

Dancer 2: Because I like to dance.

Mickela: You do like to dance.

I can tell.

Instructor: Ready?

Hip, hip, drop.

Bounce.

Hip, hip, drop... Mickela: I just want to say thank you for dancing with me and keeping my energy up because I was keeping up with you.

I need a sign name.

Jari: Can you give her-- It's Mickela-- a sign name starting with an M?

Mickela: And I love-- I love to dance.

Jari: M's...M dancing.

Mickela: Yay!

So M dancing.

Jari: That was really good!

Mickela: That's great!

Instructor: Cross, cross, cross, cross...

Dancer: I enjoy to make a class here.

Man: You enjoy making the class here?

Mickela: You enjoy making the class?

Yeah, I could tell because you're out there, like, rocking it out.

[Dancers and staff cheer] Instructor: Yeah, Richard!

Jari: Cartwheel for the win!

Up.

Yes, Jamie.

Yes!

[Cheering] Jamie: It's so inclusive.

I come here, and I can dance and be whoever it is I want to be.

And I feel like that's the same with everyone.

They show who they are just through their dance and their movement.

It's all positive.

It's my one thing in the week that I make sure I try to get to, because it makes the rest of my week that much better.

[Cheering] Mickela: My sister, if I-- I'm gonna start crying.

[Chokes up] No, if I had a dance class... Jari: Yeah.

Mickela: that I could have taken with my sister.

Jari: Yeah, like, what a nice... Mickela: that would have been so cool.

[Music] Mickela: To have that opportunity is really powerful for a family with a sibling or a child of a disability.

You know, like, that's empowering whole communities and, like, generations of families that are, like, "We can connect."

Jari: Yeah.

Mickela: "We can share this experience together."

And it's really beautiful.

[Music] My last stop takes me right down the street to downtown Denver to meet with the Phamaly Theatre Company, a professional theater company, whose mission is to be a creative home for theater artists with disabilities, to model a theatrical process for people with disabilities, and to upend conventional narratives by transforming individuals, audiences, and the world.

You are some of the founding members of Phamaly.

Can you tell me how Phamaly started?

Kathleen: We all went to a special ed school and experienced theater there.

After school, nobody would hire us.

We decided, Let's start our own theater company.

Gregg: It's amazing what this company has accomplished over the years and the number of people that have been a part of it.

We wanted to do "Chorus Line," but... Mickela: Well, we're going to be doing "Chorus Line" this year.

It's amazing.

Kathleen: It took us 35 years... Mickela: There you go.

Kathleen: But every time we bring it up, they'd say, "You don't have the talent, you don't have the support behind you."

You know.

Ben: "Chorus Line" is a show about inclusivity and getting to know somebody.

But in order to be in "Chorus Line," you had to be stick thin, you had to be able-bodied... Mickela: Legs up to here.

Ben: Legs up to here.

You're going to see 30 people who are all doing the choreography in their way and the way their body is.

I mean, isn't that actually more of the message of the show than if it wasn't that?

Mickela: In preparation of their production of "A Chorus Line," Phamaly invited me to help out with their rehearsals, specifically for the grand finale choreographed by our friend Jari of Feel the Beat.

Jari: 5, 6, 7, 8.

Lunge.

Together.

Walk.

Walk.

Cross.

Back.

Side.

Beautiful!

There is nothing you can do that is right or wrong.

You're all good.

We've got your back.

I'm here to make you all look perfect, feel perfect, feel confident, feel strong.

Mickela: My job is to translate Jari's choreography for Linda Wirth, a blind actor in the show.

Mickela: To the right.

Cross.

Right.

Together.

Arm up, up, down, and then two bounces with your hip.

Yeah.

Linda: Only this foot's bent.

Mickela: Only that foot.

Perfect.

Linda: I knew what it was like to be blind.

I knew what I needed to ask for so that I could be successful.

But what I've learned through Phamaly is how to help other people succeed.

Mickela: If you want to feel my hips, I'm right in front of you.

And I'm going--I pop my-- see how I... Linda: Yeah.

Mickela: I loosen up my knee and I go.

It's like I have something to shake off my hip.

[Linda chuckles] Mickela: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

That's it, that's it.

Linda: OK. Mickela: That's it, girl.

Gregg: It's incredible to watch not only the talents of the actors but how they learn to adapt.

I think that's one of the challenges I love about this company.

We always figure out something.

Casey: ♪ Said I can do that ♪ ♪ I can do that ♪ Mickela: Who made these?

Casey: Our production team made those.

They're wonderful.

And, yeah, they took pieces from actual tap shoes... Mickela: Right.

Casey: and sewed them to gloves.

And there you go.

Tap gloves.

Mickela: That's amazing.

And I love how, you know, you're using the actual chair to... Casey: And I'm glad it doesn't, like, damage the chair at all.

It's just, right?

Mickela: Right!

You don't have dents all over it.

After experiencing the artistry of Phamaly in rehearsal, I really wanted to see the show for myself.

So I flew back to Denver for their opening night performance.

Kathleen: To be able to do a show that shows people with disabilities in ordinary circumstances, it's about life, it's about dreams, and art is supposed to imitate life.

And sorry.

We're here.

We're in life.

Man: And 5, 6, 7, 8!

♪ Kathleen: Ultimately, my wish-- that this is no longer needed in the performing arts, in TV, in everywhere, so that we put ourselves out of business.

[Gregg laughs] ♪ Ben: We don't have people coming to see a disabled theater company.

They're going to see their favorite theater, and they're going to see, How does someone do the tap number in a wheelchair?

You know, someone who's deaf and signs in a musical where you have to sing, like, what a beautiful thing!

And I just, I wish so much that everyone would just be inclusive because, God, your shows would be so much better if you included the folks that we have here.

♪ Mickela: And I'll see you on my next "Bare Feet" adventure, wherever it may take me.

You can stay connected with us at TravelBarefeet.com where you'll find extra bonus videos, join our "Bare Feet" series conversations through social media, and stay updated with our newsletter.

♪ Mickela: Ooh, Stars!

Alice: OK. Great... Mickela: I see stars.

Alice: Great, great, great... Mickela: Oh!

And a sword!

Alice: Oh, turn the other direction.

Mickela: Look.

It's the Milky Way.

Alice: Yeah, yeah.

Now turn the other direction.

OK. Mickela: Oh, "territory."

Alice: Yeah, yeah.

Now keep--Stay still.

[Mickela chuckles] Alice: Look down slightly.

Mickela: I'm excited.

Alice: And see that?

See that?

Mickela: Oh, it's a blue circle!

Alice: OK. All right.

All right.

All right.

All right... Mickela: OK, I'm in the blue circle.

Alice: It's really, really cool.

♪ Mickela: "Bare Feet" is supported in part by... Announcer: Bloomberg Connects gives you a way to experience the arts from your mobile phone.

You can explore hundreds of cultural organizations from around the world anytime, anywhere.

Learn more at bloombergconnects.org or wherever you find your apps.

Announcer: Additional funding was provided by Koo and Patricia Yuen through The Yuen Foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by the Ann H. Symington Foundation.

Announcer: The island of Ireland.

You should always listen to your heart.

Fill your heart with Ireland.

[Baby talk]