Ballet feet on stage ready for the curtain to rise during the filming of Dan Watt’s “Everybody Dance” documentary.

OK, “Everyone Dance!”
Such a simple call from the band or orchestra to get on your feet and move your body to the rhythm and vibes of the latest tunes.
But there is a huge demographic in our world where strolling on stage or out to a dance floor becomes a monumental task because brain and body parts just don’t mind the goal of the soul.
To that end Torrance resident and former dancer Dan Watt created and directed his first poignant documentary “Everybody Dance” that follows five enthusiastic kids with different disabilities and their families on a journey culminating at an sweetly complex ballet dance recital in Southern California.
That the documentary was a total success is evidenced by the raves and standing ovations at a number of film festivals including Santa Barbara and Cleveland International Film Festival, an appearance with ballet studio founder and teacher Bonnie Schlachte on the Kelly Clarkson show, and three scheduled presentations of “Everybody Dance” on PBS television, to name a few.

Students and recital dancers from the Ballet for All Kids studio help each other prepare for their year end recital.

“We shared in their struggles and triumphs as they, along with their families and dance teachers, discovered the rhythm of inclusivity and acceptance,” Watt said. “By dancing, the children shake off isolation and the narrative of not being good enough.”
He said he feels the arts are a great equalizer, allowing every child to discover the freedom of true self expression, dedication, achievement, discovery, and most importantly — dance.
Prior to his first documentary endeavor Watt worked in Palos Verdes as the choreographer at Curtains Up Theatre. He was a former director and choreographer for the Rolling Hills High School Dance Company and was the Musical Theatre, Dance and Drama Department Head at the South Bay Conservatory before making a shift to film.
Watt said he got his inspiration for the documentary from his past experience as a dancer and wanted to answer a question that has always weighed on his mind: What did people who studied dancing, singing, music or theater do with the lessons they learned in class if they didn't make a career out of it?

Documentary Director Dan Watt’s movie “Everybody Dance” follows five physically challenged student ballet dancers from preparation to performance of a dance recital.

Watt said he scoured the country searching for the right dance school or organization to feature in his film and found Schlachte, owner of Ballet for All Kids (BFAK) in Agoura Hills, with an understanding of neuro-typical challenges all wrapped up into one atomic bundle.
Schlachte answered his piercing question with a snap. Her vast career with degrees in both behavioral psychology and dance enable her to teach and train other teachers who help create an environment for students with neurological and cognitive challenges to learn classical ballet.
“There were kids in her studio that were typical, had Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy,” Watt said. “Anyone and everyone was welcomed in that studio, and I thought her methods, ideologies and stories needed to be told,” Watt said.
The ballet teacher spent 25 years developing and implementing “The Schlachte Method” which uses a multi-sensory approach utilizing visual, auditory, spatial, imagination and kinesthetic modes of learning so that all students can participate through their preferred learning styles.
Watt and Schlachte’s partnership lasted for 10 months as the director followed the kids from home, to class and the year-end recital.
“I had been working with behaviors my whole life,” said Schlachte who made time in her ultra-busy day be to be interviewed while driving home from her studio.
“The hardest thing is combating stereo types, like people not wanting to understand even though you are disabled you can’t take a ballet class,” Schlachte said. “Or, “oh, I can’t put my typical kid in with kids with disabilities because the typical kids might not get the benefit of a full ballet class.”
Schlachte said the easiest thing for her is definitely teaching and mentoring volunteers and kids.
“I love being in the classroom, the ballet teacher said. “When I’m exhausted, I get in the classroom I immediately in a better mood. I love sharing my love of ballet with others.”
Sometimes referred to as the Energizer Bunny by her students, Schlachte said something magical happens when people from diverse backgrounds come together to achieve the same goal, like in the case of learning ballet with kids and young adults with a multitude of challenges most of the world takes for granted.
In the movie, Watt and his crew zero in not only on the struggles each of the five children and the concerns of their families, but how ballet changed their lives as they prepared for an emotional and physically demanding performance.

Student and mentor Sarah Hansen who deals with CP everyday stretches at the bar while willing her limbs to move their elegant best.

Student Sarah Hansen, now 24, gregarious, articulate and happily engaged is one of the five youths featured in Everybody Dance. She has been taking ballet lessons from Schlachte since she was 11.
And she has lived with cerebral palsy for most of her life.
Cerebral palsy, or CP, is a cruel affliction that may or may not get progressively worse. It’s caused by abnormal development or damage to the parts of the brain that control movement, balance, and posture.
Still, Hansen is an eternal optimist and woman of strong faith who has found a way to focus on other blessings in her life — and performing is one aspect that gives her a joy few on the outside of her life would understand.
One of her mottos in life is “gratitude is the attitude.”
“It’s so much fun to perform — a little nerve wracking,” said Hansen who is widely featured in the film. “I can attest to you I don’t have a wishy-washy bone in my body, but I try to be hyper aware of how much of a burden I can be.”
Hansen said when starting out she had a few had doubts she couldn’t dance enough to be in a show, or that she shouldn’t participate because she would bring everyone down.
But the high point for her was when Bonnie put her in a leading role in the recital.
“Putting me in a vital role was a big boost to my confidence,” Hansen said. It still makes me feel so joyful. I forget there are limits when I dance, when I’m in my creative space — and having a a good time while enjoying an art form.”
Hansen said in five years she hopes to be working as a speech pathologist, but will definitely continue taking lessons and mentoring other students with Bonnie, her dear ballet teacher.
And there’s no rest for the busy director, either.

Currently, Watt is working on a "Untitled" documentary with Broadway Producer Daryl Roth who is the proud recipient of three Tony Awards and London’s Olivier Award, and has the distinction of producing seven Pulitzer Prize-winning plays.
Watt is also is enjoying the success of Everybody Dance and trying to get the world out to multiple venues.
“The goal of this film is to raise awareness, offer insight and even educate,” Watt said. I hope people will come away from the film with more compassion, understanding and kindness and a better sense of the importance of inclusion.”

Film Director Dan Watt and ballet studio director Bonnie Schlachte join the Kelly Clarkson show beside prima ballerina Misty Copeland.

The film was released for streaming in October 2022 and can be found on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, iTunes and Google Play. For more information go to: http://www.dancindanproductions.com.

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Deborah Paul has played with ink since she was able to read and write. At 19, after two years of college, she left St. Louis to fly for American Airlines, and later enjoyed a long career with Flying Tiger Lines in many capacities, including flying military and their dependents all over the world as a flight attendant. Paul returned to university in the 1990s earning a journalism degree from Cal State University Dominguez Hills and was eventually hired as a newspaper reporter for the South Bay Weekly section of the Los Angeles Times. A decade later she worked for Orange Coast Magazine as their Charitable Events editor. She also taught journalism and was advisor to the campus newspaper at CSUDH and still contributes as a regular stringer for Peninsula News on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Currently, she has self-published four-of-five children's books in her ballad series. Her poetic fictional stories are inspired by real people who have left an indelible mark on the quiet display of simple human kindness. She resides in Rancho Palos Verdes married to Jim, her husband of many adventures.