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Foundation Shares Joy Of Dance With Kids Who Need Inspiration

Tribune photo by Kelvin Ma

Jean Consoletti Basiner, right, leads a dance therapy session at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 26, 2008

TAMPA - It's heartache almost too incomprehensible to imagine.

Susan Rizzo Vincent's only child, a beautiful young woman named Andrea, survives cancer, only to be killed at age 24 by a drunken driver.

Some of us would have folded up the tent and given up.

Not Susan. Oh, she doesn't want to pretend it was easy. It was mind-blowing awful. She still cries a little every day, nearly six years after it happened.

But what she and Andrea's friends have done to honor the woman who died way too young, way too tragically, is an incredible story.

"A miracle," says Susan.

Actually, the creation of the Andrea Rizzo Foundation and its accomplishments have at least as much to do with hard work, determination and vision.

Andrea, a gifted dancer and second-grade special education teacher in Rhode Island, was attending graduate school at New York University, working toward a degree in dance therapy. Because she had endured childhood leukemia, it was her dream to help children with special needs and cancer through dance.

Her dream could have died when the hit-and-run driver killed her as she was returning home from a concert at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City.

"She was the center of my life," says Susan, also a second-grade teacher who lives outside Newport, R.I. "We had been through so much with her cancer as a child, and we were very, very close."

Susan, who was going through a divorce with Andrea's father, fell apart when her daughter was killed. A Catholic, she never doubted God, but she felt so abandoned. She knew in her heart that Andrea was in a better place, but that didn't help the raw pain of being the one left behind.

Then about six weeks later, she got a note from one of Andrea's colleagues.

"Why don't we start a foundation in Andrea's name to do the work she wanted to do?" the woman inquired. "We can make this happen."

That got Susan out of bed. And with a support system of friends, colleagues and dancers across America, that gem of an idea gave Susan the will to live and carry on.

Today, the nonprofit Andrea Rizzo Foundation provides dance movement therapists in four hospitals, as well as schools and a Ronald McDonald House in several states, to bring emotional and spiritual healing to afflicted children. Volunteers raise nearly $100,000 a year through benefit performances, dance-a-thons, a golf tournament and other events to hire the therapists.

One of the hospitals that benefits is right here in Tampa: St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. On the third Tuesday of every month, registered dance therapist Jean Basiner visits the children's hospital to bring some joy into the lives of the young oncology patients and other youngsters with special needs.

Not all can make the hour-long program in the lobby. Those youngsters get a personal in-room visit if their parents make the request.

'It's A Calling'

Jean, who also has a private practice called Dance4Health, knows that some people may not understand why dance serves such a vital role in the healing process. But if you could see the joy in the kids' faces as they either watch or participate in the performance, you would understand.

It's transforming. It's heavenly.

"This is my passion. It's a calling," she says.

She says it's her purpose in life to bring hope, joy, healing and enrichment by expressing freedom to those who are emotionally bound, confined physically or limited mentally. She knows that dance and movement therapy has a way of reaching these children, who are coping with pain and loneliness.

Some of the children are reticent at first, sitting apart from the circle of kids who are eager to participate. But give them time. Jean has a magical way of connecting to the shy ones, drawing them out.

The effects of being prodded by needles, separated from family and sick half of the time take a big toll on a child who should be out playing with friends and embracing life. Studies show that dance/movement therapy is a great pain management tool, helping hospitalized children deal with their anxieties. Jean works on their self-esteem by encouraging them to take a twirl with a colorful scarf.

"You can do it!" she urges.

Before long, she has a dozen children, some bald and others in wheelchairs, smiling and dipping their bodies to music.

This is the first time that dance therapy has come to St. Joseph's. Staff members here are grateful Jean made the pitch.

"Some of these kids we call frequent fliers. They've spent most of their lives in the hospital," says child life specialist Leslie Holley. "She comes here and she lifts their spirits. It helps them escape the reality of their lives, if only for a little while."

Andrea's Dream Lives On

This is what Andrea would have been doing, had her life not been cut short.

She did not die in vain - thanks to a mother who did not let the grief of losing a daughter consume her and to people across the nation with a gift to share and a heart to share it.

"I feel like Andrea is whispering in their ears," Susan says of the children, "giving them encouragement and inspiration. This is a foundation born of love. We put something out there, and so much has come back."

If a dance studio hosts a benefit and raises at least $5,000, the foundation will send a dance therapist for a monthly visit for a year to a local school or hospital in the community. It's one way the foundation encourages involvement all over the country.

Susan knows her daughter is right there with her. She feels her presence. Andrea is her angel.

"She's with God, and she's with us," Susan says. "We are in this together."

To find out more, go to www.theandrearizzodancetherapyfoundation.com. Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or mbearden@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Dance Therapy, to see the program therapy in action and learn how to get involved with the foundati

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