For almost a decade, Jari Majewski-Price was a deaf and special education teacher. She witnessed first-hand the effect movement and tactile music had on her students. This experience inspired her to co-found the Lakewood nonprofit Feel the Beat in 2016 with fellow teacher of the deaf Julia Faliano.
“We just saw the impact—how much they lit up, how important it was to them, how inclusive an experience that you could create,” Majewski-Price said.
When entering college at Pace University, Majewski-Price hoped to combine her passions of sign language and musical theater, traveling with the National Theatre for the Deaf for some time. She graduated with a bachelor’s in musical theater with a concentration in audiology and communication disorders. But the seeds for Feel the Beat were planted after working with Fuliano in the multiple-needs classroom. The pair saw the class come alive when music and dance were incorporated into academics.
They launched their first dance workshop in 2016 with 12 deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Broomfield. Over the next year, Majewski-Price and Faliano traveled to public schools, participated in community festivals and held a summer camp through Dance Is Love. Majewski-Price didn’t expect it to be as big as it is now, having served thousands of individuals across the state. But she saw there was a need for accessible activities.
“The kids and families absolutely loved it,” she said. “The impact was really strong. From there we just decided to make something out of it.”
Feel the Beat soon began construction on its studio and opened its doors on Oct. 1, 2017, inside the Charles Whitlock Recreation Center. In addition to Majewski-Price and Faliano, Feel the Beat has nine teachers and assistants to instruct their InclusiDance classes. All classes are taught in American Sign Language with instructors adapting moves to individuals’ abilities. Dance styles range from Hip Hop and Contemporary to Jazz and Latin. Their goal is to make sure no one is left out during classes.
Amber Andrews, training development and creative director at Feel the Beat, assists with some classes and occasionally teaches choreography. They also find ways to adapt choreography to a student’s needs.
“That’s been a fun challenge, us all just talking about what’s the point of the movement we’re doing so that they can make sure they’re still doing something that has the same feeling and vibe to it without needing to make use of their legs in the same way,” Andrews said. “They can be used in a different way. It’s really cool.”
In addition to the adaptive movements and ASL instruction, Feel the Beat has pioneered a bone-conduction dance floor, which allows students to feel sound through vibrational energy that “embodies the experience of music.” Their current studio is 1,000 square feet and has 32 transducers under the dance floor to help people feel the music. The patented technology is featured at its permanent home at Charles Whitlock with a second installation at Brewability in Englewood. When looking at how to develop the technology, the team looked at companies all over the world but found the best partner in Littleton-based Clark Synthesis.
“I didn’t even know how close [Clark Synthesis was],” Majewski-Price said. “I stood on some of their furniture that had the technology connected to it and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it, this is what we’ve been searching for.’”
Majewski-Price has several stories from over the years of students who have benefited from Feel the Beat’s classes. One of the first students was a little girl who had cerebral palsy and used a walker. After going to classes for two years—learning in a comfortable and adaptive environment—she was able to throw her walker over to the side and dance.
“Side to side, full arm movements without the walker and fully confident,” Majewski-Price said. “It was the coolest thing.”
Her improvement showed that music and dance can make anyone, regardless of ability, feel confident in the supportive and uplifting environment that Feel the Beat offers.
“She felt so comfortable, so safe, so supported. She felt good with the other students around her,” Majewski-Price said. “It really made such a beautiful difference.”
Feel the Beat classes start up Jan. 6 and you sign up on the website.