While dance has long been deemed inaccessible for individuals with disabilities, senior Trina So aims to break these barriers with her advocacy group: the No Limits Youth Committee, which collaborates with organizations to promote inclusivity.
The committee is a branch of No Limits Creative Arts, an Orange County-based program that hosts dance classes and performance opportunities for youth with special needs. Since discovering No Limits through an American Sign Language class at Santa Ana College three years ago, So has drawn on over a decade of dance experience to instruct dancers as a volunteer.
“When I first saw this opportunity, I saw it was the perfect merge between my interests and passions towards advocacy for inclusivity and being able to use my sign language, along with my passion for dance,” So said.
After working closely with both students and mentors, however, So gained a new perspective on inclusivity.
“I noticed there was a kind of disconnect, because the mentors I worked with weren’t really sure about what disability meant, nor how to navigate it,” So said.
This observation inspired her to start the No Limits Youth Committee last spring, open to students from Orange and Los Angeles County.
“We just go with nonprofit events and reach out to our local community and are there as voices and advocates for inclusivity,” So said. “We partnered with the Epilepsy Walk for Life around last year. I helped choreograph a dance and yoga flow for the kids, which they performed at the event.”
Though the committee primarily focuses on the local community, its reach has extended beyond California. Most recently, they collaborated with Miss New Jersey’s Teen Delaney Higgins, whose inclusivity-focused community service initiative is also named “No Limits.”
Since its creation, So says the committee’s scope has grown exponentially, reaching more people than she initially anticipated. The committee has also partnered with Kids for Kids, an organization at the Orange County School of Arts (OCSA), and opened a branch at Yorba Linda High School.
While this large volume of interest wasn’t easy for So to take on alone, with her persistence and the support of mentors and peers who shared her vision for accessibility, the initiative has become a thriving collaborative effort.
“There was a lot of interest, but it was hard to navigate what to prioritize first and how to maintain that foundation for the initiative,” she said. “The good thing is that I’ve had a lot of wonderful mentors along the way. I’ve been working with a mentor from OCSA — she’s a teacher there as well, so having her guidance definitely helped me out.”
Though So will be graduating high school next year, she hopes to see the committee continue its promotion of inclusivity and plans to support them in doing so.
“I hope [the committee] continues to celebrate those with disabilities and include them, giving them the same opportunities we have in our own lives.” she said.
The committee is open to new membership; further details can be found on their Instagram page: @nolimitscayouth.
