Lineage “Dance for Joy” Program Expands to Serve Youth With ADHD

Lineage Dancers at Pasadena City Hall (File Photo – Steve Devorkin)

Beginning March 5, Lineage Performing Arts Center will launch an eight-week Dance for Joy session for youth diagnosed with ADHD.

By Melanie Hooks

The Dance for Joy program has long offered free dance, acting, and music classes for individuals with neurological challenges, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke recovery. It is now expanding to serve youth with ADHD, using movement-based strategies to help participants manage symptoms.

The program uses movement to build organizational skills, including time management, planning, and strategies for keeping school materials organized to reduce distractions and support learning.

Cindy Goldrich (Ed.M., ADHD-CCSP) also recommends movement-based approaches for students with ADHD, noting that physical activity can stimulate brain networks that control attention by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine levels, similar to the effects of ADHD medications.

Thanks to grants from the Play Equity Fund and the Dwight Stuart Youth Foundation, Lineage is offering the program free of charge and hopes to expand it to serve more neurodiverse youth

The eight-week program runs from March 5 through April 30 (with no class on April 9 in observance of PUSD’s spring break). Classes are held Thursdays from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Registration is available online.

The program is taught by Cynthia Crass and Sarah Alaways.

Cynthia Crass

Cynthia Crass spent 34 years at Polytechnic School in Pasadena as teacher, director/choreographer, Department Chair, Summer School Director, and Dean. She holds a BFA in Acting from Point Park University at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, an MA in Theatre from California State University, Northridge, and an MA in Educational Foundations from California State University, Los Angeles. She is also a certified ADHD professional and Executive Functioning coach.

Sarah Alaways

Sarah Alaways earned her MA in Dance Performance and studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. She has taught dance in Los Angeles, Houston, Seattle, and abroad for twenty years, including programs with the Houston Ballet Education and Community Engagement and the Alley Theatre Youth Conservatory. She also taught at the Creative Dance Center, shadowing founder Anne Green Gilbert, and graduated from the Brain Compatible Dance Education Institute.