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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Wheelchair Dance Studio Breakin’ Stereotypes

The tragedy that led professional dancer Marisa Hamamoto to start her innovative nonprofit occurred while doing what she loved most. As she practiced ballet at a dance studio in Japan in 2006, Hamamoto’s body suddenly went limp and hit the ground, motionless. Doctors diagnosed the injury as a spinal cord disorder that caused temporary paralysis, and told Hamamoto she would never walk again. But today, 10 years since the accident, Hamamoto is not only walking – she’s dancing – and teaching others who are physically disadvantaged to do the same. “(After rehab), I didn’t think there was any reason for me not to be dancing,” Hamamoto said. “Plus I saw what was missing inside of the adaptive dancing community and I felt like I was destined to do it.” Her nonprofit, Infinite Flow, is a Sherman Oaks wheelchair dance company that aims to teach members of the wheelchair community various ballroom and salsa routines for free. Founded in March, Infinite Flow has served 35 wheelchair students, both children and adults. “My wife and I were ecstatic to discover that dance was never taken away from us,” said Hoa Le, a student at Infinite Flow who is paralyzed from the waist down. “It’s an amazing class with great instruction, (but) most importantly we have fun and it’s empowering. We’ve met so many beautiful souls already through this class.” On March 3, Hamamoto is planning to host an organization preview for San Fernando Valley businesses in hopes of attracting corporate sponsors. Overhead for the organization averages $120,000 a year, according to Hamamoto, and the majority of it is funded out-of-pocket. She hopes to change that this year. “Wheelchair dancing is still very rare and it’s not something you think of when you think of a couple dancing,” she said. “We are a minority right now but hopefully we’re able to break these barriers and eventually dancing with someone in a wheelchair, a power chair or even crutches will be a natural thing 20 years from now.” Refugee Relief As Cristal Logothetis’s television screen filled with images of Syrian refugees displaced after fleeing their war-torn country, she was desperate to help, but ignorant of how to do so. “I went through a whole gamut of emotions at the time and decided I had to do something,” Logothetis said. “I saw enough pictures of parents carrying children and realized if I could send a baby carrier it would make their lives a lot easier. That’s how the idea was formed.” Carry the Future, a Glendale nonprofit, provides wearable baby carriers and survival items to refugee mothers and families in Greece. The number of refugees fleeing the Middle East and seeking asylum elsewhere is at an all-time high. Many arrive by sea from a Turkish shore to the borders of Greece and trek from there to different refugee camps throughout Europe. Carry the Future started collecting monetary donations and used baby carriers in September. To date, the nonprofit has donated more than 7,000 carriers, each valued at no more than $5, to mothers in Greece. The carriers can hold infants and children up to the age of 3. “These families are basically traveling and walking for hundreds of miles, backpacking across Europe and staying in refugee camps. They’re doing it on foot and they have to hold their babies in their hands the entire time – you can imagine how painful that is,” Logothetis said. “The baby carriers are warm, comfortable for the mother and father and free up the hands while distributing the weight of the child.” The organization has more than 5,000 volunteers worldwide. Of those volunteers, Logothetis has teams of families based in Athens, Greece – one of several entry points for refugees – that distribute the baby carriers and relief supplies to refugees upon arrival. She and a team of volunteers have traveled to Greece five times to drop off large shipments of baby carriers since September. Logothesis estimates the organization will be able to make these trips twice a month beginning in February. “We’ve had the unique problem of having a lot of money before we had a proper structure. Usually organizations will appoint the board and infrastructure before its gets rolling,” she said. “So in December we focused inward and did the work as an organization. We are now happy to say we have a structure.” In addition to fundraising for baby carriers, the nonprofit also assembles relief packages for refugee families, particularly those with children. Packages include a variety of non-perishable items including Halal beef jerky, waterproof solar blankets, non-battery flashlights, diapers, wipes and protein bars. Staff Reporter Champaign Williams can be reached at (818) 316-3121 or [email protected].

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