Dance Like Nobody's Watching--Dancing in the Lite Gait system during physical therapy
Esmé is a born dancer. All her life she’s been excited by the music she loves–which is a whole lot of music–and calmed by the music she really, really loves–like the Muppets and the Small Potatoes.

Music has always moved her…even when she could barely move. Here she is a four months old, unable to stop herself from feeling the groove with the Plastic Bertrand song, Stop Ou Encore.

Her skills improved quickly–here she is a six months old, grooving to Paul Simon’s concert in the park.

 

Does it get more adorable than that? I think not.

I have always felt as though music is a way to build a bridge to Esmé. Music has been a way to get her to focus, to relax, to engage. It is motivation. It is fun. It is learning.

Interestingly, however, when we tried Music Therapy a couple years ago, she really disliked it. She made it very clear to everyone that music was not going to be therapy. We do, however, use music in therapy still to help encourage her. Nowhere has this been more evident than her physical therapy sessions in the Lite Gait system…where we’ve used music to keep her bouncing on the trampoline and walking on the treadmill. She loves the feeling of being free to move without anyone restraining her.

Last week her therapist Stephanie had the idea to play clips of the Yo Gabba Gabba Super Music Friend Show on an iPad in front of Esmé while she walked. Ez completely lost her mind and started busting a move whilst walking on the treadmill.

She was so adorably earnest on there–like she’d been waiting for the opportunity to try out the steps she’s been choreographing for months in her head. She even took some awesome steps along the way.

I’m going to let Esmé’s dancing skills tell the rest of the story…here she is dancing to Devo.

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