ITA is honored to announce Carrie Ann Inaba, long-time judge on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and advocate for Dance/Movement Therapy, will be accepting the inaugural Lamplighter Award for Arts in Healing at its 40th Anniversary Celebration on June 9, 2015. The person chosen for the Lamplighter Award is an example of excellence through the artful wielding of their own creative flame. Not stopping at their own personal accomplishments, the recipient has used their fire to become a Lamplighter, fueling the lights of others to shine where needed, and revealing the nurturing, energizing, defining power of the creative arts. Music, art, dance/movement, and drama therapy improve lives in tangible, measurable ways. More people will know this, and more will receive these services, because of ordinary extraordinary actions by our Lamplighter.
Carrie Ann is a long time advocate for the Andréa Rizzo Foundation that funds Dréa’s Dream, a program providing Dance/Movement Therapy to children in hospitals and schools around the country. Andréa Rizzo was a childhood cancer survivor, special education teacher and an aspiring Dance/Movement Therapist killed by a drunk driver at the young age of 24. The Andréa Rizzo Foundation, established in her honor, funds Dance/Movement Therapy for children with cancer and developmental or learning disabilities; the only non-profit organization of its kind.
In 2008, Carrie Ann met Andréa Rizzo’s mother at a taping of Dancing with the Stars and became the National Spokesperson for Dréa’s Dream and the Andréa Rizzo Foundation. Carrie Ann has witnessed the effects of cancer within her own family and understands how Dance/Movement Therapy can provide a way to manage pain and improve overall physical and psychological health. She actively supports the foundation in countless ways. To name a few: Carrie Ann has participated in dance/movement therapy sessions with pediatric cancer patients at inaugural events to establish Dréa’s Dream in renowned children’s hospitals, has generously conducted auctions to raise funds to further the foundation’s programming, and arranges a “dream package” every year allowing cancer patients from Drea’s Dream to have front-row seats at a taping of Dancing with the Stars.
ITA presents this award to Carrie Ann Inaba, and thanks her for her continued inspiring support for Dance/Movement Therapy.