When Mary Church is practicing her tap steps, she listens closely to the sounds instructor Reta Rochelle makes with her own tap shoes. Church then tries to re-create the movements herself, shuffling her feet back and forth, holding on to a chair for support.
Church is practicing at her home with Rochelle three times a week in preparation for a recital at West Coast Dance FX on Feb. 1. She can’t wait to show her moves off to family and friends, but Church has never seen a tap routine herself.
Church has Norrie Disease, an inherited eye disorder that leads to blindness in infants at birth or soon after birth. It is most common in males, and Mary’s mother, Kathleen, has three brothers with the disease. The disease causes abnormal development of the retina and an inability to sense light and color.
Rochelle selected a dance with intermediate advance moves by Eddie Brown for Church’s first recital.
“I said she couldn’t be a Gene Kelly or a Fred Astair flying across the stage,” Rochelle said. “But she can do this guy because he has very tight movements.”
The dance has four parts, including a second segment that is especially complicated.
“The hard one – whenever she mentions it I know it’s the second one,” Church said, adding that the first time she tried the step she spent 45 minutes leaning on the kitchen counter until she could get the steps right. “I always wanted to dance. I never got around somewhere to dance.”
She said she was originally interested in hula, but when Rochelle offered a chance to learn tap, she took it. Church was familiar with some of the basic tap moves from taking lessons as a third-grade student. Now 18, she said the most challenging part of the dance has been “keeping everything together and straight in my head.”
Here is video of Church dancing. The story continues below.
Church and Rochelle have been working together since September, with the recital set for a couple weeks before Church heads to the Louisiana School for the Blind where she will learn to live independently.
After months of working with Rochelle, Church said she can tell what movements the instructor is making from the sounds her shoes make.
“I can tell when she is using the heel and that of the toe,” she said.
Rochelle commended Church for always being patient in repeating the steps over and over upon request, while Church said Rochelle never told her she couldn’t try a move because it was too challenging. Rochelle is a friend of Mary’s grandmother Betty Mullens, who met the family when they were living in the Santa Cruz area. Now both families live in Hollister.
“Too many blind people are told, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t see the steps,’” Church said.
Church said she hopes to continue her dance lessons when she moves to Louisiana for the nine-month program that will teach her how to live on her own in a sighted world. She said her long-term goal is to return to the Central Coast to attend school at Monterey Peninsula College. She wants to study to be a linguist or pursue a career working with horses. She volunteers at a nonprofit DreamPower in Gilroy that offers horse therapy for at-risk children or teens and others.
Her grandmother is excited about her trip, but concerned over her traveling alone.
“She will come home twice in the nine-month period, and she flies alone and that is scary to me,” Mullens said. “People want to help too much or just ignore her.”
Church said one of her biggest challenges with moving around outside of her home is the unsolicited help from people who see her cane. She said people often tell her to watch out for obstacles she can’t see, which can cause confusion.
“Sometimes it is better to let me make mistakes,” she said. “The cane is for finding obstacles.”
Even though she has not been able to watch her routine, Church said she wants to make sure it looks as good as possible so as not to disappoint the family and friends who will attend the private recital in February.
“I do hope she keeps up her lessons in Louisiana,” Rochelle said. “She has more to go and more to give. She has a talent for it.”
