Breaking Down the Barriers

Katie Senior

Katie Senior
Katie Senior

Katie Senior, a 21 year old woman with Down syndrome; has a passion for dance, sports and acting. 

In October 2009, Katie had the chance to realise her long held dream of being a choreographer when she was invited to choreograph and present a dance to celebrate the opening of The Belconnen Art Centre Exhibition Artist/Proof on the International Day of People with Disability. This gave her just a few short weeks to select a song, choreograph the routine and teach it to the three girls from the Dream Team who would dance with her.  The performance was very well received and Katie has been invited back to do two new dances for the Gala opening of ‘Perception’ on Friday 2nd of December 2011.

In April 2010, Katie was part of the ACT team of athletes to compete at the IX Special Olympic National Games in Adelaide; over four days of gruelling competition she won 3 gold medals and 1 bronze medal and was declared the Australian National Champion for the 50m Butterfly. She loves to represent her state at this level of competition and has a dream of representing Australia in a World Games. Hopefully she moved another step closer to realising this dream in September 2011 when she competed against swimmers from all over Australia and the Pacific Region at the Down Syndrome Down Under National Games held in Noosa, winning gold and silver medals.

In January 2011, Katie was a part of the team that competed in the FFA Futsal National Championships; she had never taken part in this form of sport before and was one of only two girls on the ACT team.With her usual determination, she trained hard and practiced her ball skills every day.

In June 2010 she faced one of her most difficult challenges, to audition for a part in a film to be produced in the ACT. This involved an acting audition and interviews with the writers, producers and the director, followed by five weeks of long rehearsal sessions. The confidence and professionalism she displayed throughout the making of the film, the subsequent radio, newspaper, television interviews and the Q & A’s impressed everyone who worked with her. The movie ‘Beautiful’ is now being used as a training resource within the ACT as well as countries in Europe and the US. It will be shown at international film festivals and Katie and her co-star Peter Rossini have been invited to do another Q&A when it is shown at the ‘Other Film Festival’ in Melbourne in 2012.

Katie hopes to make many more movies and will begin acting classes in 2012 to enhance her skills and improve her chances of gaining more roles.

In April 2011 Katie was invited to take on the starring role in the PATH Families Network, Facilitator Training program. Production of the DVD involved 4.5 hours of filming before a live audience, an experience that was intense and quite confronting but the program organizers were delighted with the result and her professionalism throughout the evening.

For the last few months Katie has been preparing a contemporary dance piece with the renowned choreographer Liz Lea, Artistic Director of Canberra Dance Theatre, this will be performed at ‘Short and Sweet’ a competition being held at Canberra Theatre from 14th -18th November 2011. This mentoring project was initiated and funded through the auspices of Caro Roach the ArtsAbility Officer for the ACT.