The weather was gorgeous yesterday — albeit a little warm — for the 36th annual Dancing With Denise recital, held this year in the large grassy yard behind the school’s Gravel Rd. studio.
All day, young ballerinas strutted their stuff for an adoring audience who watched from quad chairs spread across the lawn, braving the hot sun for hours. At the end of the day the dancers extended their love even further when they made a donation to Webster-based Bella’s Bumbas, a nonprofit grassroots organization which builds pint-sized “Bumba” wheelchairs for children with mobility issues.
The generous donation was enough to cover the cost of building several of the pint-sized Bumbas.
Kudos to Denise Baller for taking her lessons beyond just dance, and teaching her students to think about others. Or, as she wrote on the Dancing With Denise Facebook page, teaching them “how spreading compassion and love can make little ones who aren’t as mobile ‘feel better when they are dancing’!”
Thank you to Rebecca Orr for providing me with a lot of photos for this gallery from the event:
Denise with Bella’s Bumbas creators Marty Parzynski and Rebecca Orr, and Kenzi, a Bumba user. 
One of the dancers and her little sister trying out a Bumba 
Denise and Kenzi enjoy a mist
Read more about Bella’s Bumbas and the great work they do on their Facebook page and webpage.
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