An article in Dance Magazine titled "Dance, Autism, and Creating Neurodivergent-Friendly Spaces" featured the Elon first-year student.
Madeleine Milner ’27 was featured in a recent article in the September 2023 edition of Dance Magazine on creating neurodivergent-friendly spaces in dance.
Milner is autistic which manifests through her learning and communication styles in the studio. She is also sensitive to lighting and music, which she told Dance Magazine can affect her ability to pick up choreography. Despite these challenges, Milner says that having autism gives her a unique viewpoint on the world and dance.
Milner said she found choreography to be an important outlet and that her neurodivergence has given her a distinctive point of view as an artist.
“Especially in choreography, it’s a unique asset,” she told Dance Magazine. “I can’t speak for all autistic people, but at least for myself, choreography is such a vital form of communication and it’s such a universal language. When I choreograph, it’s to communicate—there’s such a purpose to it.”