Published in Charlotte Magazine, August 2018
Sample:
Davian Robinson, otherwise known as DJ, puts his backpack on before he walks to campus with his guide dog Charlie. “I plan to graduate in Spring of 2020 with a double major in exercise science and dance,” he said. “I’m the first blind dance major ever at UNC Charlotte.”
“When I was 12, I started at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind,” said DJ. “I took a dance class. It wasn’t too much dance at first, but my flute teacher, Rebecca Ramen, got a group of my classmates scholarships to a local dance studio.”
“Cycling… I call it my blind freedom,” said DJ. “In 2012, I got invited to race camp through the United States Association for Blind Athletes. They taught me how to ride a tandem bike. It’s a two-person bike with two sets of pedals and handlebars. I have a ‘pilot’ as they call it. They do the steering and braking. The ‘stoker’ in the back is basically the power. One experience lead to another and last December I won my first National Championship after paracycling for 5 years. I gained 5 national metals before my national title.”
‘Ballet and tap were my first experiences with dance instruction” he said. “Tap, hip hop and contemporary jazz tend to fit my body more and gave me a broader sense of freedom. Since the age of 17, these have been my main focuses.”
“My first thought in persuing dance at UNC Charlotte was ‘man, how am I going to do this?'” he said. “But they ended up making it accessible and accommodating to me and that’s how I found that freedom again. They brought me a shared experience by giving me a movement mentor, Lillian Willis (but I call her Lilly).”
“I have no excuse, I can do anything. There’s no amount of rejection or hurt I can go through that will stop me from pursuing the things that I want to pursue ” said DJ reflecting on his recent skydiving experience.
“In the long haul, I want to continue to provide resources and build inclusiveness throughout the art form of dance by bringing a better awareness in the sense of blindness,” said DJ. “Since I’m the first person with my disability at this school I want to allow professional staff, students and educators to be more educated in bringing accessibility to studios. I want to create a nonprofit called ‘Empower 23’ that would help artists foster a deeper understanding of body awareness Maybe one day I’ll create a curriculum that is based off of movement to help bring a different way of learning to the humanities and dance.”
“I always live by this motto, it’s called the never quit mentality,” said DJ. “Never quit, never give up, never give in, never give out, and never say no to life’s challenges. Always be willing to say yes and life will become easy. Not easy in the way that you won’t experience trials and tribulations, but through those hardships you will grow in character.”
