The Golden Chrysalis: Building the World's First Autistic Pre-Professional Dance Company

This week on Tap Tuesday, Amanda and Leta announce the Golden Chrysalis — a first-of-its-kind pre-professional dance company that is autistic-founded, autistic-run, and autistic-led. They discuss what it takes to build this program, why they need full-time staff, and how the community can help through their April fundraising drive. Plus, Leta keeps it real about choreography changes, imposter syndrome, and the realities of life at the studio.

All Golden Chrysalis dancers are on full-ride scholarships, and the program costs about $3,400/month to run. Every donation helps keep it going.

Learn more and support:

• Our website: https://www.letatapstyles.com
• Autistic Wings / The Golden Chrysalis: https://mtyc.co/2kbqaf

Want to be a guest on Leta's Tap Styles (And My Autistic Life)? Send Amanda Trisdale a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/letastapstylesguest

Transcript

0:08

Okay. Seriously, last week was so much easier'cause we were having a discussion about, you know, like non-important stuff on IQs. Anyways. Hey Lita. Welcome to Lead's Tap Fest and my autistic life. How are you doing this Tuesday? Very good and very decent. Um, we. Have we're last week when it was you and I chatting, we were talking about the IQ levels falling dramatically. We're gonna go back to dance this week. How does that sound? Nice and very And Oh, this episode is going up on the 31st of March. Uh, that's right before autism awareness. Autism Acceptance Month starts, and we are going to talk about. Some stuff happening at your studio and, um, lead it back into the acceptance awareness part. How does that sound? Very, very exciting. So, um, this past month we have been revving up and we are ready to announce that there is a new thing at the studio. What is it, lda? The golden, it's so all of us are a little neurodivergent. Go ahead, say What you wanna say E though today was just see us autistic freaking wings. And it's humanly possible that all of us have some speech issues. Correct. And we named the new pre-professional group the Golden Chrysalis. Something so hard to pronounce. That's the thing I'm like afterwards and the person who has dysgraphia and dyslexia combined and is the one doing all of our graphics and writing of things, hi, me, is the one who went, yes, we're gonna go with Chrysalis. And then I realized I can't spell Chrysalis on a regular basis. It's called Autistic Freaking Wings. Just a little problem there. Um, yeah, just To the best of our knowledge, this is a first autistic founded, autistic run, autistic led, uh, just like the studio is a completely neurodivergent group of dancers in the world. Yeah. Is history, eyes are, I. I, I mean, come on. History is fun. Oh, when you in it, Well, I mean that's kind I don't think George Washington had any fun or Hamilton well, I mean, um, but but history does have its eyes on you, little one and the rest of you guys, I mean, no pressure or anything, but history has its eyes on you. It. We all watched the play Hamilton. What do you mean you liar? I said, I Are you calling me a liar saying no pressure? said, no pressure, liar. Um, but I wanted to ask you a couple questions 'cause our big fundraiser for the month of April at the studio is going to be to try and raise enough money to bring on a couple full-time staffers to work with not only the golden chrysalis but the studio itself. Um, and that way we have more hours and don't have to worry as much if they're salaried. On overtime be for like recital or for performances or community events. What would having a full-time staffer who is around to help with the golden crystals mean to you guys? Uh, we would get more hours, we would get cleaner choreography. We could clean our choreography. I. What would cleaning the cor, uh, like, I mean. For people who dunno what cleaning the choreography means, what would cleaning the choreography mean to your performances? decent on stage. Um, and for those who are listening, who are like in the, uh, comp world or like in the, uh, recital world, how often are we changing your guys' choreography? Every. single five minutes. Okay. Ignoring the show thing, like the pieces are staying the same, like we are coming up with pieces know anything about comp. comp changes at the end of the It does. Yeah. you do a comp piece for one year and you never do it again. Yeah. I know nothing about that world. Like, but for the golden chrysalis is you guys are a performance based. You guys are going to be having concerts and we're putting together your concert pieces right now. And, uh, these pieces are going to theoretically, we all know a choreographer changes the pieces. Theoretically stay the same between when they are laid down, when you've got 'em cleaned up, when we film them, when we put them Emphasis on theoretically. But these pieces, are going that one freaking dc, that one freaking F 11 dc I mean, no. Miss Chloe, miss Smile, all my As mentors. Maybe they should, may, maybe they could have, I don't know, grab the child. That, to me, at least one I knew, or any of the interns. Kate can Oh my note, the, the, oh, you are killing me real quick. Um. But like the choreography should stay in your repertoire, theoretically speaking. Somebody goes, hi. You know that one thing you've been doing for multiple years of your life? Yeah. We're changing a part, turning direction. We're. And then it's like Okay. that does happen with performance pieces. I'm sorry. You expect me to be fine with this. Why Happens with performance pieces does not happen as often in like the studio world, but when you get out into the professional world, world is weird. What would it mean? Like for the studio, not just for the golden chrysalis, but for the studio. If we can get out, we get you guys at least three or four pieces that we have set on you by, you know, September and we start going to events and you guys start performing in events and you start getting the Golden Chrysalis and autistic wings name out there. What would that mean for like fundraising for the studio and all It would get more money. Get more money. We would get more money. Um, and then on the money thing, because I think we are one of the few studios doing this, we are asking you guys to be mini pros, but we can't really pay y'all because, um, I get sleep treats outta this, right? oh yeah. You get sweet treats Yeah. That's all I want for payment. Here's the thing, you guys are all underage dancers, um, paying you for performances. I can do, I can't pay you for like your class time, but y'all are required to be in classes because reasons. Um, so we are not charging any of the Golden Chrysalis as a dime intuition. All of the golden chrysalis are on full ride scholarships that way. I don't feel bad when you guys are out doing a 10 hour day at a uh, event. Um, on the other hand, I also don't feel bad when you're taking classes and your life is revolving around dance because you guys got paid an in kind stuff. But, uh, it cost about $3,400 a month for us to provide this to you guys. Did you know that? Yes, I live with you. Yes. You tell me every day. Yes. Um, and so we need more and more donors to come on to help promote, uh, not promote, help keep this program going and get it off the ground. It is a brand new program. We need to get it off the ground. Um. And after this year, we would like to start talking about taking you guys on tour and like going out to other places and showing the world what autistic kids can do. We need about a year-end studio to even think about doing that. Um, and not just going locally, but I think a tour is in our roadmap. Um, we did, you know, what are you thinking? Go ahead. What? Why you say we need a year in studio to even think about that when you're already thinking about that. I'm sorry, that was, I'm sorry. Why? We need a ear in the studio to think about that when you're already thinking about it. I'm sorry. No offense. Mother. What kind of logic are you taking? Very bad logic. I love you, mom. Was I the only one who took anything away from speech therapy? Because, I'm sorry to think I'm the only one who took. And I still Okay, back to Port Mar, in English. back to important part. So for April, not degrading your mother for April, we are going to be really pushing to bring on a full-time staffer or two or three. Um. And we are looking to raise about 4,000 to $8,000 in monthly recurring donations this next month to help support the golden chrysalis. You're giving me a look. A full-time staffer. Another reason we need a full-time staffer is most studios, pre-professional programs are in the evening because of our space restraints. Um, 'cause we have exploded as a studio, you guys have to be there in the daytime, which means I need to hire someone like full-time because, uh, that's the only way they can afford to live. What I I, so are you explaining that to people on the other side of the screen? Kind Kind of? Yes. Yes.'cause this is at the podcast. Um, so we are going to have donation links in all of our podcasts for the next month. Uh, those donation links will work year round, um, for our, uh. Golden crystal to donate to the studio.'cause we're paying from the studio so you can donate to the studio, but to donate to higher staff to work with you guys. And then they'll also be working with the other dancers at the studio because you know it's not going to work in an autistic setting if the pre-pro and professional guys are only working with the pre-pro and professional guys and not working with the other dancers because that's going to freak out autistic dancers when they suddenly change. Uh, teachers, don't you think Lita? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is they're not raised by two A DHD parents and have them met multiple mentors who keep switching, who's doing whose class. Even though Miss Chloe, I remember you being the one doing this class and Miss Vince, I remember people No, no, you did not emphasize that. But like, there's another thing, like we are skipping, uh, Hollywood this year because of uh, scheduling. But next year we'd like to take a group. We would like to take the Golden Chrysalis out to Hollywood, have them perform at, uh, the Hollywood tap Festival. happened. We will, we'll discuss that off Cam. What off podcast? Um, we'd like to have them go out, perform at the Hollywood Tap Festival, and we would love, absolutely love to bring our staff with us. If they're hourly, it's almost impossible to bring 'em to LA with us if they're salaried. It's like I, because did you know if you are hourly, I have to pay you from the time you leave your house to the time you get back for these trips. And we are not like right by a major airport. Plus, you know, it takes time to like fly out to LA and DC from here and I am all for doing that. The problem is I don't have that And it takes a good chunk of time to drive Denver. Yes, Yes. and go. You love your mentors, you love your mentors, you love your friends. You love your friends, you love your mentors, you love your mentors, you love your friends, you love this, your friends. Do you want doing this to see your friends and see your mentors and Oh yeah, you gotta do dance stuff too. I mean, you want doing this stuff, doing because we do living and I'm sorry. I need more coffee to survive. Also, three days, only like three days. But like, I wanna get back to what the golden Chrysalis is mean, um, as because yes, we are fundraising for this, and I have a knee stuck. I'm going just, huh. Okay, sneeze, gone. Um, but like, this is huge for the community. We went out this weekend and even like the a BA therapy groups at the trade show we were at, were like, oh my God. You have a pre-professional program, a pre-professional company made up of completely autistic dancers. I mean, how many times did you guys, did you and Natalie get asked the stupid question of, are you autistic? Me barely Natalie, like 24 freaking seven. But then again, I thought Natalie was me and I was some random child. I mean, there was. no longer your biological child. Well, Well, there's a big, huge banner with your picture next to it saying Lead a rundel meet and greet. So I don't know. I'm apparently no longer your child. Apparently. That's Natalie. I love Natalie. Apparent. Natalie, apparently, it's not me on that, on that banner, but just. the representation, the be these kids being able to see, 'cause you are learning tech at our studio. You are learning real ballet, you're learning real jazz, you're learning real hip hop, you're learning real tap. You're learning real musical theater in a setting that is specifically, we are not dumbing down the class. We are changing a few things, but we're not dumbing down the class. But I think one thing that. Like has to be said is having representation where it's like I can be a dancer. I mean, you had PA a parent at least at the booth, and then I saw a couple parents away from the booth crying over the idea that their kids could dream about having a career in dance, didn't you? No, I couldn't see the parents who wore that boots. I wasn't looking to the side of me, but at the, the booth, you had oh, yeah. the idea at the booth, like you did have one parent breakdown at the booth in happy tears about the idea that her kid could bring back that dream. I. I also love the face child going, are you okay? Um. What do I do? What, what, what do I do? Why are you crying? What do I do? What is going on? I'm sorry. What? What, what happened? What happened? What? Why are you crying? What happened? What, what, what, what? What happened? Why are you crying? I am confused. What? I think though that that is something that, that is where the golden chrysalis is our, our best. Ambassadors to this, uh, city, to the state, to the world is you guys are not just saying, Hey, I take classes here at this studio. You guys are like, Hey, not only do I take classes. That you can follow this path and you can be dream about being a professional dancer, even with your autism. And you don't have to give up yourself. You don't have to mask, you don't have to fit in at the traditional studios. You don't have to take their separate classes that tend to not have the same level of tech as the classes that you know their teams are doing, and you can dream about that. And I think getting a full-time staffer in, or two or three, if we can afford them, um, after this fundraising drive will also help because then they can sit there and they can focus on not having to have two or three jobs, but focus specifically on autistic wings and focus on getting the best choreography they can for you.'cause how important is the choreography in something like Important so you know it so you don't fall off at this stage and then have to go. That was definitely a totally part of the choreography. Wasn't my question, let me rephrase my question. for you. How No, no. You, you were right on knowing the choreography, but how important is it having that perfect piece, that lightning in a bottle, that piece that evokes all the emotion, though you guys cannot get through the Billie Eilish piece that you guys are doing without Okay. Not my fault that decided was children to make it where children have to look to other, look to the of each other. We're not to look at each other where you not look at each other because they right at. Was it was emphasis on It was. supposed to be. It was, that piece was supposed to be a piece for the modern recital. I walked in outta my office 'cause the only time I can do any work in my office is when it's just the pre-professional kiddos around and, um, walk out. You guys are doing it. And I pull Becca over to the side and I'm like, I need you to change your mind on this. And she gives me this look of terror and I realize that I forgot I'm talking to another tizzy person and I'm like, yeah, that's not a recital piece. That's uh, gotta go in their repertoire. And she's like, oh, well thank God you love it, but. No offense, mom, I love you, but you might wanna figure out how to make a really quick, quick switch happen in your head, because no offense, when you talk to idiots, you start talking to everybody else when they're idiots, and I love you, but you might wanna learn how to quickly switch your head. Quicker. One of the things I wanted for everybody said quicker and nerves. But it's things like that and, and I think that's where I'm trying to get to that choreo. Yes, I do need to learn how to flip a switch.'cause I'm so used to talking to the neurotypical parents that by the time I get in I have masked myself up, which I'm like, kids don't mask. I have to mask to talk to your parents. It's a whole thing. But um. It is so that choreography is so important and that choreography doesn't take a minute to do in the middle of class. That choreography takes hours outside of the studio for your choreographer to get to you. Correct I mean, yes, if we were talking about normal people, no. If we're talking about my choreographers, but you know what I'm. what I'm saying? I mean, choreography. Choreography isn't something, I mean, it does just come to some people, but it also, it has to be with what we're going for, with what we're trying to do with having that profe coming in and going, well, you're pre-professional. I need you up here at professional. I need you to rival the best in the industry. Children not asking a lot, just need you to rival the best in the industry. Correct Lida. I, what, what, what? Wait, what gender are we asking this to? Uh, you faith, Natalie Liv. I need all of you guys to come up and be the best in the industry. hey. Well, the A can do it will die. Imposter. syndrome, it runs through the entirety of the syndrome? Back to thing. on here though, I need, absolutely need the choreography to be. At that level as well. So it's not just asking you dancers to be there. I'm asking our choreographers, Hey, I need you to be able to choreograph at the level of New York, at the level of Hollywood. I need you to come up to a level of professionalism that isn't usually asked in a young kid's dance studio. No, no, no. All I'm thinking is now I just need you to remember when you talk to them, you are not talking to we idiot idiots. Just quickly flip that switch for the sake I. But I think because we're asking that, it's a lot easier to ask that if their only job. Is working for us and not working three other jobs so that they can afford to put food on the table. Correct. Lita, You know what? It concerns me when you say sweetie has jobs. I think technically be, uh, yeah. she only has one as a job. She also she has another job. So where her third job? Yeah, we're her third job right now. Um. I, okay. I know some people say the trading system was bad, but it. Okay. Put a pin in it and we'll come back. Um, but I think that's one of the things, one of the reasons that that has to be our fundraising priority next month is to fundraise enough to bring on full-time employees. Um. And because we need them to be focused on the studio and only the studio and, um, have high blood blood pressure. without, yeah, without the blood pressure. I think the other thing is, I'm gonna try and I'm, I've got a couple feelers out to see if we can find anyone who's willing to do a matching grant. Like they'll help us, like someone who's willing to do, Hey, I will put up this amount of money. For the first month matching, kinda like Colorado gives does in uh, November. I think it'll be amazing. And I think the golden chrysalis are so important to the autistic movement from. The community site.'cause it is commu a community organization. It's not neurotypical people coming in and going, let's do this. This is a community coming in and going, let's go guys. Um, it's also like we are going to train these girls how to be little pros. You're going to get to know them on the podcast once we switch over to them being daytime and being in the studio for five hours. Why did you ask any of them if they were gonna be on podcast? Didn't. Didn't it's see perks of being the manager. might wanna start putting on the deal for the golden chrysalis. So you golden. Why, why am I doing this? Ch chrysalis, ch i I give up. I mean, and just put on the deal. You're automatically gonna be on the podcast. I've been telling parents as they're coming in that they're automatically like, we're gonna bring you out, like heads on the podcast. Um, I know that at least one local news station is planning on interviewing you guys a lot. I, yeah. Um, you guys are gonna be out doing video shoots, like actual video shoots, not like the five hour. Video shoots that we all hate, but the professional ones, we're going to take a week in, uh, July for you guys to do all the Colorado gives video shoots at once, which is another reason. It would be nice to have a full-time staffer. I mean, you said not five hours, so for six hours, how many angles do you need? I, I need a lot. Uh, and the week we're doing the Colorado gift shoot. In July. I know Colorado gives isn't till November, but we're pre-filing all that. Um, we're going to take that back studio since this is last summer, we have no one back there. We'll turn it into a cute little Christmas in July place and we will get all the 30 seconds, all the 90 seconds. All the videos we need for Colorado gives filmed. Hopefully we won't need reshoots. But yeah, there's gonna be lots of angles, there's gonna be lots of this, there's gonna be lots of that. And you know how long a one minute and 32nd video can take. 30 seconds on video, hours on end, on reality. Oh, so I'm sorry. Can somebody start saying, no, no, no, you're not, not gonna be a person who needs to live off of coffee. Because if you're going for a job that needs professionalism, you gotta live off a coffee. So pick your favorite coffee room, Starbucks. Now that's the other, thing is you You know what if Starbucks really, really, really, really, really wants to make a really decent commercial, just aim for the people who do know the freaking Hollywood songs and movies and art stuff, and s. And I mean, we also like your dad and I pay for all the snacks at the studio that you guys don't pay for.'cause I don't want a bunch of hangry teens and pre-teens around I have no money. Also, you're my mom. Well, yeah, but I'm not asking the parents to pay for 'em.'cause I'm like, I have your child here for multiple hours. I need them to not be hangry. So hand me their list of snacks, they snacks they want because I do not want that. But, so our goal is to hopefully raise in the next couple months, 4,000 in recurring donations, monthly to go towards salary. Um, we are planning on doing the major shoots, uh, if you want to follow along with the Golden Chrysalis journey. Uh, the Golden Chrysalis. Do not have a website yet, but we have Insta and we have Facebook, and I will link those in the description below. Um. Autistic wings is always looking for donations too. We are looking for business partners as well, correct? Like the big businesses who would like to give us money and we will put their name on everything. Um, if you get it in, we're doing banners for the next group and like at the bottom of our banners, if you do a certain amount of donations a year, you get your name on the bottom of all of our banners and we're doing a lot of community events. That means you are. Uh, stuff is out there, correct. Lita? I mean, yes. Uh, next week we're gonna talk a little bit about, uh, our need for businesses for Colorado gis. Um, we are doing co-branded deals if, especially if you are willing to do for the November deal a, um, matching grant situation where you're like, we will match up to X amount of, uh, new donations. You get in. We would love to talk to you 'cause we're gonna film all that in July and I'm getting that stuff to the girls. Um, what else is there? Oh, uh, swings for wings. Our golf tournament is coming up April 24th, 2026. If you listen to the podcast before April 10th, you can go register. We have to have our registration numbers into them 14 days in advance, so we have to cut off on the 10th. Um, what else am I missing? Why else? Oh, babies. They should donate for your babies, right? Lita? I mean, I don't think they want to be the reason why babies have. Do you, Uh, we are actually in a much better financial position than we were in December. When you were saying that, stop. I'm trying to use their strings to gain money here. They won't give us money if they that, but the. thing is, we need help now to support the buildup that's coming in September because we are going from, I believe, if I did my numbers in my head, right, uh, under it. 50 students to, we will have 150 dancer slots available in classes in September. I mean, we're gonna have, actually, we're starting them in June. If we can bring the staff on, we'll have musical theater for adults. We'll have hip hop for adults, we'll have tap for adults, we'll have ballet for adults, we'll have ribbons for adults.'cause everybody seems to love the ribbons class, including the adults. We're gonna have a full homeschool, uh. Daytime program, we're gonna have a full pre-school daytime program. We're gonna have our Saturday program, we're gonna have our evening programs, and we have maxed out the studio space and we have, uh, 60 plus classes. Um, so yeah, we need to hire the staff now, and that means I need people to, uh. Give me their money and now, if that makes any sense. Plus, it'll support the kids because all of our kids are what? Lita Um. Scholarship. Not single. Sorry. not a single dancer at Autistic. Wings. Yeah, I know. Sorry. I started hyper fixing on the fact that if the, the beagle puts paw just right, it kinda looks like a hoof. I know, I, I mean, what it, what she puts it just right. It looks like a freaking hoof. It looks like oof. but, um, wait. Mind just went by by all me. Um, sorry. No, it's okay. So. We are fundraising, uh, with the off to bring people on it, um, does help us because our classes cost $171 an hour. That is outrageous. Um, we charge if you want to come dance at autistic wings and you want to pay that full 1 71 an hour, I am not gonna stop you. What about you, Lita? Hi. I'm just going go with the flow, get to have two a H parents. I'm just going go with the flow. Even if I don't know what's going on, I'm just gonna try to figure out what's going. I number tells me what's going on because every basics, they told me what's going on, but nobody told me what's going on. Why does that always happen? Yeah. Well, but what I'm gonna say is, uh, so if you wanna pay. The 1 71 an hour, we'll be fine with it, but that's outta the reach of most parents. So most of our dancers are on partial or full scholarships. Because of that, we need the community's help. But we are good. We are great. We are fine. We need more. We need to get the stuff there so that we don't have to charge our kids 1 71 an hour. Um, so donation link. In the description below, there will probably be a QR code that has been around here somewhere while we've been doing this. What am I missing? Am I missing anything or are we good? The only thing is I think the pit bull fell asleep. Well, Well, we will talk to everyone, so, so flappy Friday we have. another guest on, I cannot remember, for live Me. I was in meetings before we did this podcast, so I don't remember who was coming on Friday. I'm so sorry. Um, and then we'll have another Tap Tuesday episode next week and we'll talk more about tap, tap and dance and all that fun stuff. And maybe more about the Golden Chrysalis, right? Yes, I did a terrible job, but I was like, let's name this. You wanted Chris a lie, which was not a real word. I went, I don't care. I'll make it real world I went, Let's do it this way, And it, it was good. So, um, yay. Uh, and yes, we are going to get this done. All right. Talk to everyone. Talk to everyone Friday. and have a great tap Tuesday. Bye. Bye. bye. Okay, well thank you for watching the podcast and please subscribe and also look at the Adorable, don't You watch, subscribe Forward and also please like, and don't pick it if you'll to us, if you'll miss any of our new podcast. And also you see the Adorable, don't you like it?