{"id":21232,"date":"2026-01-22T13:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?p=21232"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:18:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T21:18:44","slug":"festival-of-human-abilities-to-celebrate-creativity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?p=21232","title":{"rendered":"Festival of Human Abilities to Celebrate Creativity"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>by Noella Noelophile\u00ae<\/h6>\n<div id=\"attachment_14307\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=14307\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14307\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14307\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14307\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/painting11-e1580360390424.jpg\" alt=\"Artist paints next to an exhibit of acrylic paintings in Great Hall during Festival of Human Abilities\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14307\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Festival of Human Abilities, January, 2020.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Visitors were painting, learning to create a simple animation, following dance moves and admiring the art exhibits.<\/p>\n<p>Music filled the Great Hall.\u00a0 Lots of smiles were in evidence.\u00a0 Performers chatted with guests after their sets.<\/p>\n<p>And best of all, everyone was welcome, and celebrated.<\/p>\n<p>All of the above are reasons why Aquarium of the Pacific&#8217;s Festival of Human Abilities is one of my favorite of their annual events.<\/p>\n<p>And this weekend, it&#8217;s going to happen again.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>The festival<\/strong><\/h4>\n<div id=\"attachment_14304\" style=\"width: 448px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=14304\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14304\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14304\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14304\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Mia-and-Marty-uptempo11-e1580357012296.jpg\" alt=\"Mia and Marty perform an uptmpo dance with their arms extended upward in unison and his legs extending beyond the back of her wheelchair\" width=\"438\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14304\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Infinite Flow dance company performance, January, 2020.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Aquarium of the Pacific hosts their twenty-third annual Festival of Human Abilities this Saturday and Sunday, January 24th and 25th.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrating the creative talents of people with disabilities, the Festival features live performances throughout both days, as well as creative workshops.\u00a0 \u00a0Dancers, musicians, and artists who have honed their craft while learning adaptive skills will be spotlighted.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, sign language interpreters will be on hand, and the Aquarium will provide both visitor guides in Braille and audio tours.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_14342\" style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?attachment_id=14342\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14342\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-14342\" class=\"size-full wp-image-14342\" src=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Zendrea-11-e1580402525585.jpg\" alt=\"Zendrea Mitchell smiles and dances to &quot;Goodbye Road&quot; as she signs the lyrics\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-14342\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Zendrea Mitchell, Festival of Human Abilities, January, 2020.)<\/p><\/div>\n<h4><strong>Two talent-filled days<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>While I don&#8217;t have the specifics of the featured artists, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aquariumofpacific.org\/events\/info\/festival_of_human_abilities\/\">Aquarium&#8217;s website<\/a> lists the program as ongoing from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm, both days, with performances and programs happening at 45-minute intervals in both the Honda Blue Cavern and the Honda Pacific Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>In the past, the Festival has also featured workshops including dance, taught by Chelsie Hill and The Rollettes&#x2122;, wheelchair painting by abstract artist Tommy Hollenstein and animation with Dani Bowman of <a href=\"https:\/\/danibowman.com\/\">Danimation Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Among the performers who wowed everybody?\u00a0 Dancer\/educator Zendrea Mitchell, above, with her moving sign-language dance performance, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.infiniteflowdance.org\/\">Infinite Flow<\/a> dance company.<\/p>\n<p>Like to experience the Festival of Human Abilities?\u00a0 Be sure to book your tickets online; the Aquarium requires reservations for weekends and holidays.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/tickets.aquariumofpacific.org\/WebStore\/shop\/ViewItems.aspx?cg=AOPWEB&amp;c=AOPPV\">link for information.<\/a><\/p>\n<h4><em><strong>Aquarium of the Pacific&#8217;s twenty-third annual Festival of Human Abilities happens from 9 am to 5 pm Pacific time, Saturday and Sunday, January 24th and 25th, at 100 Aquarium Way in Long Beach.<\/strong><\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Noella Noelophile\u00ae Visitors were painting, learning to create a simple animation, following dance moves and admiring the art exhibits. Music filled the Great Hall.\u00a0 Lots of smiles were in evidence.\u00a0 Performers chatted with guests after their sets. And best &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/?p=21232\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[262],"tags":[1455,167,2623,76,723,2534],"class_list":["post-21232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-the-year","tag-festival-of-human-abilities","tag-aquarium-of-the-pacific","tag-aquarium-of-the-pacifics-23rd-annual-festival-of-human-abilities","tag-artists","tag-creativity","tag-dancers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21243,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21232\/revisions\/21243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelophile.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}