Celebrate the Creative Spirit of People with Disabilities
Join the Aquarium of the Pacific for its tenth annual Festival of Human Abilities, a celebration highlighting the creative talents and abilities of people with disabilities.
Wheelchair dance, live music, signing choirs, art demonstrations, accessible SCUBA diving demonstrations, storytelling, service dog demonstrations, and other creative performances will be featured by people who have disabilities. Free interactive classes for people of all ages and abilities will be offered. Sign language interpreters will be present at all major shows and an audio tour is available for those who are blind. Extra elevators and assistance dog relief areas will be available to the public.
At the Festival of Human Abilities, guests with or without a disability will have the opportunity to learn unique adaptive skills taught by artists and other experts with disabilities. Activities will include singing in sign language with Love in Motion, wheel chair art with artist Tommy Hollenstein, hat painting with Michael Seale Jr., and adaptive dance with Team Hotwheelz and Theatre Bethune. A variety of free creative workshop classes will be held on site, lasting thirty to forty-five minutes per session.
The Aquarium’s festival program will showcase the talents of people with disabilities including Team Hotwheelz, a wheelchair dance team featuring Ali Stroker, a finalist on The Glee Project this summer on Oxygen, and Chelsie Hill and Mia Schaikewitz, who are featured on Push Girls, the hit reality-documentary series on Sundance Channel. Also featured at the festival will be Love in Motion, a sign language choir; Dat Nguyen, a world music guitarist who is blind; Kodi Lee, a singer who is blind and has autism; ARC Handbell Choir; and other inspiring performing artists. Along with these music and dance performances, the Aquarium will feature local artisans, including mouth-stick art demonstrations, as well as storytellers and booths by various organizations featuring everything from art displays to games for people of all abilities. Adaptive SCUBA demonstrations with Diveheart will be held, showing that people of all abilities can enjoy the sport.
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| Event Information | |
|---|---|
| When |
Saturday, Jan 26, 2013 | 9:00 AM–5:00 PM
Sunday, Jan 27, 2013 | 9:00 AM–5:00 PM |
| Cost | Included with general admission to guests. Free to Aquarium members; 20% off for their guests. |
| Tickets | General admission is required. You can purchase tickets online. Members get in free. No reservation needed. |
| Info | (562) 590-3100, ext. 0 |
| Category | |
Honoring Zina Bethune
The honoree at this year’s festival is the late Zina Bethune, founder and artistic director of Theatre Bethune. Just weeks after she participated in last year’s Festival of Human abilities Bethune passed away in a tragic car accident. She will be honored at 1:40 p.m. on Sunday, January 27, followed at 2:30 p.m. by a performance by Theatre Bethune’s Infinite Dreams. Infinite Dreams is the first participatory dance program for youth with disabilities created by a professional dance troupe. Bethune had an extensive and inspirational professional dance career, while being “differently abled,” in her words, with dysplastic hips, scoliosis and lymphedema. She was a pioneering force for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the arts and disability movement inclusion guidelines for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Bethune’s work with arts and disability is now a worldwide movement and has received commendations from three U.S. presidents, four Los Angeles mayors, senators, governors, the Los Angeles Unified School District, Actors Equity, and the United Nations.
