melelani
guest dancer
(Pronoun: She, Her)
Melelani Perry is a young (45) woman with Down Syndrome. Her name means Song of Heaven in the Hawaiian language. Mele is of Native Hawaiian, Japanese, and European ancestry, but was born and raised in the St. Louis area, though she has visited her family in Hawaii many times. Melelani began dancing at the age of 12: she was taking a scuba-diving class at the YMCA. She was waiting in the lobby for her ride home when Radhika Taj, the teacher of the bellydance classes at the Y walked by, in full belly-dance regalia. Melelani was smitten: she followed Radhika to the classroom and watched some of her class. She was a dancer from that moment on. Melelani danced with various belly-dance and Bollywood troupes continuously, for more than two decades, dancing in many public venues with several different teachers. She participated with Butterfly Dreams and Miss Amazing, empowerment organizations for young women with disabilities, and in fact won the title of Queen last year, and went to the national conference in Chicago, where she danced for several hundred people. However, when when the pandemic hit, virtually all of Melelani's dance opportunities folded. So when the pandemic cleared up, we started looking for dance opportunities for Melelani, and were delighted to find a strong, supportive, dance program in CKDC. Melelani is an active, engaged young woman. She graduated from Special School District, and is literate and responsible. She has held down the same job for ten years. She is a fixture in Maplewood, where she lives with her family; she is very social, and loves to ride around town on her three-wheeled e-bike, visiting and talking with people.