and executive artistic director of Abilities Dance.

(suspenseful music) I was coming into a place where I wanted to be able to dance professionally, but other folks weren't working in spaces that were accessible, or just not willing to adapt or conform their classes or choreography.

And so with different attempts at trying to fit into these spaces and not being successful, realized that I would have to create my own space.

And so Abilities Dance founded from there.

Today, Abilities Dance has two different programs consisting of adult artists with and without disabilities and contribute not just dancing and choreography, but music, and composing, and access measures.

All right, so let's dive in, shall we?

So we have our story, "The Banned Ballet."

Leslie enters, a librarian who is sad and disappointed about the recent book bans.

Majority of our rehearsals, like 95% of them, are online.

We're gonna start here.

Rehearsing in person is not the most successful.

It's definitely not the most accessible for me, in addition to others.

And I'm gonna take myself off, and we're just gonna practice that.

I think it's important to allow accommodations for folks to be able to really show up in their best selves.

And we're just going to step, step, step, and rotate.

We have been working to create a story that follows Librarian Leslie.

- I will show you also, I brought one of Ashley's dolls.

Ashley put her in my bag.

- Aww, precious!

Leslie Taub is the lead of this ballet.

(flowing music) Leslie is based in New York.

She's coming here to be able to have in-person rehearsals.

I come around to here, we embrace for a moment.

Lovely.

The arm comes up, we rotate around to here.

Lovely.

- I began dancing as a kid, actually.

I started dancing instead of physical therapy.

I took dance class, and in fact, my mom actually used to drive me almost two hours to ballet.

- I'm gonna be, can we reach in?

- [Leslie] And then we had a performance.

- Here, sliding out.

- [Leslie] I was allowed to dance like in the background in the chorus, but I wasn't allowed to dance a meaningful role.

- Lovely.

- And at that point, my teacher told me that I could not be on a stage.

That that was not, because I of how I look.

And so I didn't dance again until I was 40.

- From here, bringing both hands together like a book.

- [Leslie] I'm excited to be the lead.

(Ellice imitating scooting steps) - [Ellice] Lovely.

- [Leslie] I'm interested to see Ellice as my fairy bookmother.

I think what will probably really be the star of "The Banned Ballet" is not so much going to be- - Here.

- [Leslie] This character of the librarian, or the character of the fairy bookmother, - Roll.

- [Leslie] But the interplay and the dynamic between characters.

- Let's practice that again.

- Okay.

(traffic whooshing) - [Stage Manager] This is your five-minute call musicians and dancers; five minutes.

(door thudding) - Hello!

Yay, we are here.

We made it.

- [All] Whoo!

- Excited to bring the story to life and I know so many others are, too.

Getting a lot of folks coming in about just the excitement of these stories being told.

We are the creators and defenders of our own stories.

(dancers responding) (flute playing single, high note) Librarian Leslie is reaching towards something more than her current reality.

Our ballet is as accessible as possible.

She turns to face left as if holding a diverse book that has vanished due to these sweeping book bans that have hit her community.

We have a captioner to be able to caption the audio descriptions in person and virtually, as well as having an ASL interpreter for our deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

- She daintily weaves through all the school committees, library boards, and other spaces that have made these regulations possible.

We are, first and foremost, creating work for our community.

When there is so much content that is not accessible, we try our best to be as accessible as possible.

She comes to Leslie's side in a comforting embrace.

I think that most people don't realize accessibility is achievable.

A lot of it is just a mindset shift.

But it's not bad at all.

It illuminates how their actions have affected others on a personal and societal level.

Making the work more inclusive means you're bringing more people in, and we wanna be brought into so many different spaces.

(audience and dancers cheering and applauding) It's possible, you just have to make it work.

- [Tracy] Thanks for watching,