Aspiring Attitudes
Aspiring Attitudes’ goal is to provide the truest dance experience possible to both typical and special needs students, including those with severe physical and developmental limitations. We are an integrated dance studio that encourages every student to achieve his or her fullest potential. We strive to achieve this goal by adapting dance instruction to meet the needs of each individual student through group classes or private lessons and by including all students in recitals and local, community performances. Among our most fundamental objectives is to realize the dance and coordination goals of all students regardless of physical, intellectual and/or financial limitations.
Aspiring Attitudes Dance Studio was born out of the happiest of coincidences when the mother of a young girl with cerebral palsy found that no dance studios in this area could accommodate children with special needs and was introduced to Shannon Wrights. At the time Shannon was a recent graduate of Oklahoma City University with a degree in dance management and the dream of starting a dance studio where special needs and typical dancers alike could share the stage.
Visually impaired herself, Shannon Wrights knows from personal experience that dance is a vital means of developing strength and confidence, both physical and emotional. Further, she appreciates the profound importance of inclusion and the momentous impact it can have on the lives of individuals with special needs as well as their neurotypical peers.
Today, Aspiring Attitudes has grown to more than 80 students with a wide array of abilities. Approximately half of the dancers have some degree of special needs, including some with severe physical and/or intellectual limitations due to cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, autism, and/or muscular dystrophy. The studio features several “combo” classes that integrate those students with the “typical” dancers. There is also a wheelchair ballet program and private lessons for those students unable to thrive in a group setting. Many of the students begin in private lessons but progress to join a group. Our goal is to help each dancer be the best that they can be!
