A world of solutions | The “little kings” of ballet

Focused on the task, Dave carefully inserts a ribbon of colorful tulle into a ballet slipper autographed by a professional dancer.

The 27-year-old puts the object aside when he is satisfied with the result. Then, he draws from the bag of slippers placed on his work table and repeats the same movements.

“Well done, Dave!” », says specialist educator Athenee Carillo.

After about fifteen minutes, the young intellectually disabled person stopped working and began to rock back and forth in his chair, emitting low-pitched sounds.

Piano notes from a dance studio upstairs carry through the room. We are in the salon of the Petits Rois – of the foundation of the same name – in the Grands Ballets Canadiens building located in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles in downtown Montreal.

Since the beginning of September, eight “little kings” and “little queens” have been working here full time among professional dancers and artisans – the Grands Ballets costume workshop being one of the largest in the metropolis.

In the bright cafeteria of the cultural organization on the morning of the passage of The Pressthe group of new employees meets young dancers who have come to fill their water bottles before returning to lock themselves in their studio adjoining the common area. They are graceful – even dressed in ordinary sports tracksuits – and visibly in exemplary shape.

“It’s magical for our young people to be around this perfection. Driven by the desire to live up to the challenge, inspired precisely by the work of these professional dancers, they will want to deliver,” marvels the president of the Les petits rois foundation, Vânia Aguiar.

“A gap in service” at 21

Young people living with severe or moderate intellectual disabilities – and their families – often feel abandoned by “the system” when they reach the age of 21.

Becoming “too old” for specialized school, but considered as “too serious” cases to access the job market or even a work platform for disabled people, they are condemned to stay at home.

“It’s not uncommon for one of the two parents to have to stop working,” says M.^me Aguiar, herself the mother of a “little king” who has become an adult, Henri-Louis.

And despite all the good will of parents, these young people quickly lose what they have acquired, deprived of stimulating activities carried out by specialized workers, activities which they need in order not to regress. They are in a way condemned to “rocking in front of the TV”, while these young people are “capable of contributing to society”, explains M^me Aguiar in a persuasive tone.

Especially since in Quebec, for an adult living with an intellectual disability, the waiting time to access a day activity offered by a CISSS or a CIUSSS can be up to 1586 days, argues M^me Aguiar. In other words, we are talking about more than four years of waiting to be admitted to an activity that does not necessarily even occupy the young adult full time.

Business work platforms

Faced with this unacceptable situation in his eyes, M^me Aguiar could not sit idly by. For around ten years, she has been trying to remedy this by convincing companies to open work platforms for adults living with a moderate to severe intellectual disability (and often other associated disorders such as autism).

As young people must be closely supervised, the Foundation provides guides and the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal provides specialized educators.

Currently, nearly ten organizations and companies – Loto-Québec, CAE and Urgences-santé in particular – offer work platforms to “little kings”, either under the internship formula or as a job. full-time, in the metropolis. On average, there are eight young people per set. “My dream is to open two new ones per year and for the model to extend to all of Quebec,” says M.^me Aguiar.

An “easy” project

At first glance, welcoming these new, atypical employees may seem complicated. This is not the case, assures the general director of Grands Ballets Canadiens, Marc Lalonde. “On the contrary, it would be boring not to do it,” says the manager. Frankly, it’s not demanding at all. »

All you need to do is find them a place designed to make them feel good and, obviously, tasks that match their abilities, he explains. Here, in addition to wrapping slippers that will be sold after the shows, young people will shred paper, water the administrative staff’s plants or even recycle labels for the costume workshop, among other things.

Because the Grands Ballets Canadiens have “all their staff”. It’s not cheap labor, says its general director. The cultural organization opened its doors to the Little Kings, faithful to its values ​​of inclusion and openness to differences; in the same way that it offers dance therapy workshops or even “relaxed” shows adapted, among others, to an autistic clientele – with less loud music and where the spectator is not required to remain silent, continues Mr. Lalonde.

“In downtown Montreal, there are enough empty offices, I can’t believe that other companies can’t get into this,” said the general manager in an interview, turning to one of the large windows of the cafeteria to point out the neighboring commercial towers.

A proud mother

Mother of three children, including Emma, ​​a 30-year-old “little queen”, Lynne Poirier sacrificed her career to take care of them. “It’s one of our main fears, when we see the age of 21, that our children will stay at home doing nothing and regress,” she says. Today, her daughter is filled with pride – and her mother too – to say that she works at the Grands Ballets Canadiens.

It’s impossible not to be touched when you come across Emma in a corridor of the Grands Ballets Canadiens. ” How are you ? », she asks, generously distributing the high-five. The young woman generally does not wait for a response from her interlocutor. ” How are you ! “, she answers her own question. Enough to bring a smile to the face of any dancer who is having a bad day in the studio.