A new dance competition in Ballarat will raise awareness and money for research in to Fragile X.
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The Ballarat Dance Awards, to be held in January, will involve two days of dance masterclasses with a third day of competition to determine scholarship and award winners with all proceeds from audience tickets from the Sunday Dance Challenge to be donated to Fragile X Association of Australia.
The cause is close to the heart of awards director Anita Delaland, who trains young dancers Zara, 12, and Sadie Jones, 7, whose brother Jimmy, 10, has Fragile X, the most common single-gene cause of autism worldwide. Their mother Sarah is a local coordinator of the association.
Ms Jones said Jimmy had missed many of his milestones as a toddler and was super-sensitive to noise and smell – and she realised from early on there was something amiss. Until Jimmy’s diagnosis at 14 months old, Ms Jones had no idea she was a carrier and the likelihood of her future children having it was very high.
“There is a real need to raise awareness of the condition because it's so widespread, but not very well known,” Ms Jones said previously.
Fragile X syndrome is the world’s most common known cause of inherited intellectual disability. It causes behavior, emotional and learning challenges.
Every week one Australian child is born with Fragile X syndrome and 20 are born who are carriers of the Fragile X gene. Despite being as prevalent as cystic fibrosis, the genetic condition receives little attention.
“We’ve just built our new Kenrick dance complex, which took a couple of years, and now we can do bigger and better things which is why I have gone ahead with the new dance awards,” Ms Delaland said.
“Because the Jones family were here within our school, we wanted something personal and meaningful and it’s a cause that doesn’t have a lot of recognition.”
Dancers from Melbourne, Geelong, Bendigo, Hamilton, Ballarat and other areas have already signed up to participate in the program from January 11-13.
“We have been working on the Ballarat Dance Awards for a few years and until now it’s just been an idea. We have been gifted $5000 and will put the money toward giving back to the community.”
The awards are open for dancers aged eight and over.
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