Juan

He suffers from Down’s syndrome, he is docile and easy to instruct. To Händel’s music, he behaved in a helpless awkward way. Bartók’s Dance Suite, however, conjured up the brave, strong, heroic Juan, perhaps the hero of his dreams who may defeat the seven-headed dragon. 

While music was playing, no matter how many times it was repeated, Juan remained a hero. A noble, pure hero with Bartók, Juan could protect children, and himself not need protection. I can never forget those classes when I was secretly hoping that we could redeem him from his condition with Bartók’s music. 

We couldn’t and after the music stopped we found the old Juan. Still, our soul sparked within us, and this spark remains with us giving hope.