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Download AudioA music therapist at Otepoti-Dunedin’s Sara Cohen School for students with intellectual disabilities is looking forward to seeing his students take the stage at next week’s Otago Polyfest.
Dennis Kahui says he’s working with 60 students aged from 5 to 21, and music is a huge part of the curriculum.
It will be the fifth time he’s taken a group to the festival, and there are huge benefits – such as seeing one of his almost-non-verbal students open up when she picked up a microphone to take on a Six60 song.
“She was on stage, you know ah [sings] “Mana e manaaki.” Hard, with all her heart. I don’t try to do it to make people cry but my aim is to prove to people that these students here, have much more going on inside,” he says.
Dennis Kahui will also be a featured speaker at this next week’s 50th Anniversary Music Therapy NZ conference in Wellington.
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