Heather Marie
Heather Marie is 43 years old and has been dancing with Open Arms for six years. She enjoys dancing, taking fitness and yoga classes, hand cycling, and loves to sing for fun! She also loves movies and watching Broadway shows. Her favorite Broadway show is Hamilton. She has traveled to Disneyland, New York City, Europe, and New Zealand. She is an Open Arms Ambassador and this allows her the joy of sharing their mission and her love of dance, which truly helps her heart and soul move freely like never before.
Interview Transcription:
SPEAKERS
Molly Joyce, Heather Marie
Molly Joyce 00:00
What is care for you?
Heather Marie 00:00
Care for me, depending on the situation, comes from what I observe that I need at the time. If I fall and I'm scraped, I might look around and ask somebody, if they're around if I could have a band aid. If I fall, and I'm not injured, I might just pick myself up and keep right on going with whatever was going on at the time, whether that be dance, or I like to do yoga and fitness as well as dance. So if I fall doing those things, I will pick up and keep going if I can. But if I do you need assistance, I always try to ask, like in open arms, if I fall? Alas, Megan, you know, can you help me? You know, my shoes are loose? Could you help me tie? I mean, simple things like that sometimes are the care that I need at the time. So it just depends on the situation I'm in.
Molly Joyce 01:06
And the next question is, what is strength for you?
Heather Marie 01:09
Strength for me, comes from within. But as far as how I gain it, I'll gain strength through maybe music that I listened to, or the situation at hand like dance, I gain a lot of strength by the movements that we create. I also gained strength by people that I'm around, a lot of people are inspiring, I get a lot of inspiration from different people, as well as Megan, like, she's been very inspirational to me, just helping me to be able to dance because with my disability, I never thought I could dance. It was never something I haven't considered until I found open arms. And they can show me you can adapt movement. With you know, dance this way, you know, you don't have to do everything with your your legs, you could do it through your arms, or your head could move, just simple things, your shoulders. So I that's how I was able to consider dance. And over time, I've built my ability to have more balance. Just by being able to try different things. It's given me more confidence. And I built strength to have the balance needed to try different movements that I might not have done several years prior to this, coming to the dance company. But yes, Megan has helped me tremendously to build strength, both inside and outward. have also like gained ability in strength through not feeling like I can't do things. I always felt like, well, I can't really do it. And she's always there to say you can do it, you can do it. You know, I'll give you a pat on the back or on the shoulder to say, you know, don't you know, try it? Don't be afraid. So those are ways that I found strength.
Molly Joyce 03:09
That's great. It's great to hear about your balance.
Heather Marie 03:11
Oh, thank you. Yeah, well, I have um, cerebral palsy. So balance is something that I don't I've never really had to start with and through also having a thyroid condition I have even less because that's one of the components of graves diseases, it affects balance. And so I also that's the type of thyroid disease that I have is graves and so yeah, and my doctors like do you have thought? Do you have balance and I'm like, You're really asking the wrong person I have never had balance but coming to dance really helped me to build the balance. So it's just interesting how hand in hand each works with the other. So I but I that's why I champion Megan so much because without her I wouldn't. I wouldn't be where I am with my balance.
Molly Joyce 04:17
And then the last question is, what is interdependence for you?
Heather Marie 04:23
Interdependence for me, um, while sometimes it can be hard to ask for help, because I want to be so dependent. I don't want to depend on other people. But interdependence for me has come from, you know, somebody just giving their arm helping me to get up a step or two, just give me the extra hands if I'm feeling wobbly, so I don't fall. It also, you know, that's given me interdependence in in being able to do things Sometimes, interdependence for me is also having a body through dance, you know, working on duets, and different group projects being dependent on a partner, you know that interdependence of, you know, you have to depend on that person to make the dance work. So, I've learned to be more interdependent on fellow dancers to have, you know, the pieces that we're doing go off well. So I find sometimes it's hard though, I'll admit, it's hard to say, Well, can you help me? Sometimes I'll just like, stand there. And, like, hopefully, somebody will get the hint that I need help. But I don't always say no, but I'm trying to get better at interdependence. And again, Megan's really been helpful in that area to show me that it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to be dependent on, you know, Kristen or Gail or somebody else in the group. It's okay to say, you know, can you help me out? I'm a little lost here. I need a little assistance. There's nothing wrong with it. So hopefully I'm getting better at that. I'm trying.