{extra + ordinary}: mallory

          {extra + ordinary}

 ~ordinary women being used by an extraordinary God~

      ~doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way~

                    ~living extra in the ordinary~

I am so excited to introduce to you my first {extra + ordinary} friend, Mallory.  She is one of my best, best friends, and I am so thankful she is in my life.  We met a few years back when she was in occupational therapy school, and we were in a Bible study together.  We became even closer after a super fun trip to Boston, and with the years since she has become one of my closest friends.  Mallory is my friend who is so full of grace.  Not only is she a graceful ballerina with poise and perfect posture, but her character is one that is full of grace.  She is the one who seems to so easily extend grace to others.  She always seems to have just the right words, and she amazes me with her gracious responses toward difficult people or circumstances.  I am the one who is quick to fly off the handle and let my anger get the best of me, while she is the one to remind me to be slow to anger and quick to love.  (I do have to say, though, I have found one thing in life she is not graceful with.....manuevering a kayak down a river ;)  She is stellar at going backwards down rapids with a talent for hitting every single rock....maybe, or maybe not, on purpose).  Mallory has a tremendous heart for children with special needs.  She spends her days treating them as a pediatric occupational therapist and has begun to use her love for ballet to touch their lives as well.  Here is her story:

Dance has always been my thing. I started taking ballet and tap lessons when I was five years old. I can remember telling my mom I wanted to take dance because my best friend and next-door-neighbor Laura, took dance, and when she went to class I had no one to play with! I’m sure my parents had no idea how big of a role this extra-curricular activity would play in my life (or how much it would cost them…) when they took me to that first class. From that very first lesson, very first year, very first dance recital with that pink and blue costume, I was hooked.

I danced in class, I danced at home, and my mom even says I used to tap dance down the grocery store aisles. When I was nine, our studio changed hands and we got a new teacher, Ms. Shay, whose main focus was ballet. She taught me ballet steps and ballet technique, but mostly, she taught me to love ballet. The music, the movement, the grace, I loved it all.  And so I danced. I danced my way through elementary school and middle school. I had to take a brief break in the ninth grade when I had a major back surgery to correct scoliosis. And then I danced my way through high school…even a fused together spine with rods connected to it couldn’t stop me. I started teaching classes my last year of high school, and continued teaching, taking class, choreographing, and performing through college. When I moved to Augusta in 2007 for occupational therapy school, my involvement in dance slowed down significantly, but my love for it did not.

One day, I saw a news segment about a ballet class in New York for children with special needs, which was taught by a physical therapist. My mom bought me this book, and I read a little more about it. I knew immediately that this was something I wanted to do. Of course I loved dance, and through studies and experiences in occupational therapy school, a love for special needs children that had always been there, grew even more. I thought about it all throughout OT school, but was hesitant to try to start something as a student, especially since I didn’t know where I would be going after graduation. But, through the Lord’s provision, I was offered a job right here in Augusta in a pediatric therapy clinic, with a boss who was incredibly supportive of this ballet dream of mine, and contacts with a local dance studio where I taught ballet classes during OT school. Starting something from scratch is scary and intimidating to me, especially when I don’t really know where to start, so I spent about a year after I graduated and started working just talking about what I wanted to do, but not really doing anything. Finally, my boss just came out and told me, “Mallory, you have been saying this is what you want to do, and you haven’t done it. You need to do it.” That was just the kick in the pants encouragement I needed to get the ball rolling. I did some research on different special needs dance programs around the country and contacted them and got information on how they ran their programs. I contacted the local dance studio I had connections with and asked if they would be willing to rent studio space to me to hold my class. And I passed out fliers to patients at my clinic who I thought would be interested. The response was overwhelming. Other programs provided me with invaluable information and advice. The dance studio was 110% on board with allowing me to rent their facility to start this class. My patients wanted to take ballet lessons. My friends, co-workers, and family were supportive and wanted to help in any way they could. And so, Steps of Grace: Ballet for Special Needs was born.

parent observation day, December 2011



We started our once-weekly, Tuesday afternoon class in September 2011, with five students, and my assistant and friend, Cassie. By that December, we had eight students and another volunteer/assistant, who was an OT student. When we started back after the holidays that January, we had 12 students! In just five months, we had gone from five students to 12. Parents told me they saw fliers in doctor’s offices and therapy clinics that I hadn’t even personally advertised in! When one of my volunteers moved away to do rotations, she asked some OT students a year behind her if they wanted to help, and I ended up with four new volunteers. At first I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with so many volunteers, but I quickly realized that with a class our size, I needed every set of hands I could get. Just another way God was looking out for me when I didn’t even know what I needed!


leaps over the river

This year we have 14 little girls in our class, and they are the most precious little ballerinas I could have ever asked for. The diagnoses in our class range from Down Syndrome to hemispherectomy to  DiGeorge Syndrome to autism, and many more. They range from nonverbal to chatterboxes, and from skipping and chasseing to needing help holding their balance while they do their plies. But each and every one of those girls is fearfully and wonderfully made, and could not be any more perfect. Every week, they get the opportunity to put on their leotards and tights and ballet shoes, and learn that ballet is in French, and practice their plies and releves, and dance with their friends. While ballet is therapeutic, it is not another therapy appointment or doctor’s appointment they have to go to. It’s a place where they can fulfill every little girl’s dream to be a ballerina. “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you…” are the words they danced to in their dance recital. I couldn’t think any more appropriate song for them.

dance recital, May 2012

And for me, the best part of all of this is that I get to be their teacher. Some days I am just so overwhelmed with gratefulness that I get to live out this dream of mine. And even though I am their teacher, they teach me infinitely more than I teach them.

I am so, so thankful that I have this opportunity.