Check Donna’s website, Facebook page and YouTube channel for more info.
“Better Times” – Donna Russo with Scott Hislop
Last but not least, watch Donna on the Go for NINJAS, and her classic closing line “Who’s disabled now?!”
Read about Donna Russo & Turners Syndrome here
OTHER CREDITS:Cover photo by James McQuillen
Direction/Choreographer: Tam Warner
Creator/Producer: Peggy Lane
From Janis: I met Donna decades ago, when she was still very mobile. She has Turners Syndrome *, which in her case made her quite short – so we bonded immediately. (I am 4’10”.)
Donna had been a dancer all her life, pushing past companies that told her she was “too small to audition” and dancing in television and film. I’ve watched with genuine amazement as Donna continued to carry on, dancing from a wheelchair when independent movement became impossible. She’s one of the coolest people I know, and I hope her workencourages anyone who’s discouraged by physical limitations to try and find ways around them. From Django Reinhardt and Bruce Langhorne, two of the greatest guitarists ever known who played despite having less fingers than the “norm”, to Donna Russo, who dances on regardless, artists continue to make art. And we continue to learn from it.
* Please note that Turners is unrelated to FSH Muscular Dystrophy, although the two can be present in someone simultaneously. One does not lead to the other!
BETTER TIMES WILL COME
(Janis Ian)
Better times, better times will come.
Better times, better times will come.
When this world learns to live as one,
oh, better times will come
When we greet each dawn without fear
knowing loved ones soon will be near
When the winds of war
cannot blow any more
Oh, better times will come
CHORUS
Though we live each day as our last
we know someday soon it will pass
We will dance, we will sing
in that never-ending spring
Oh, better times will come
CHORUS
“Better Times Will Come” words & music by Janis Ian; © Janis Ian 2020. All rights reserved; international copyrights secured. Used by permission