About Our Founder and Her Vision
Who is Cynthia Ford?
Cynthia was born in 1957 in Yonkers, New York. Her father was a doctor and a Chinese immigrant who was married to her mother, who was Dutch. Growing up with not only an immigrant father, but parents in an interracial relationship in the 60s and seeing the difference in how they were treated made her wonder why it had to be that way. Then, in 1965, her youngest sister, Jane-o, was born. Jane-o was born with Down Syndrome and, at that time, it was common to send them away to be institutionalized as they were seen as “broken”. However, her father didn’t agree with the practice and Jane-o was raised by her family. Young Cynthia never understood the idea that other people were “broken” or that people should be treated so differently like her family was. After all, aren’t people just people?
At seven years old, Cynthia was privileged to be enrolled in dance school, which fostered her creative spirit from a young age. But once again, the question stirred in her mind, “Why do I get to do this, when other people with the same passions don’t get this luxury?”
At age sixteen, she was apprenticing under a renowned dance teacher from London, when she realized that she could use the medium of dance to tell stories that she believed were important for the world to hear.
However, once it was time to go to college, she didn’t pursue dance as her father told her it wouldn’t pay. So, instead, she pursued Zoology with a goal to become a doctor like her father. Her passion for the arts never left though and with her little free time she was involved with community theatres and even spent time in underprivileged schools and helped them build up their theatre program so all youth could have access to the arts.
When she finished her undergraduate, Cynthia realized that, although as a doctor she would be helping people which was her passion, she wouldn’t have time to truly help people the way she wanted and felt was needed. So instead she chose to pursue a Masters in Education, specifically in Special Education, encouraged by Jane-o whom she had begun taking full care of.
During her time at college, Cynthia’s life was changed when she met Jesus. After learning more about who He was, she understood that God teaches just as she has always believed - no person is a mistake, or broken, and doesn’t deserve to be treated as such. She wanted to share this belief with others and began in the church where she changed the viewpoint of what it meant to worship for many people. She would dance constantly in church, as well as teach many other young people how to worship with their dance.
However, she eventually wanted to share this passion with even more people and so, she began traveling with different dancing troupes and was invited to a variety of churches, conferences and more. In a trip to Holland, her desire to help the youth took center stage as she saw that the teens at the church were not allowed in the church service. She didn’t believe this was right, after all Jesus, Himself, said, “Let the children come to me.”
Eventually in the 80s, shortly before her first daughter was born, Cynthia opened her first dance school so that she could reach even more people. She could also make dance more available to the people she wanted to help when she started learning dance all those years ago. Dance was for everyone and she wanted to make sure of that. Later on, she grew into more than just dance and expanded into theatre as well. She spent many years teaching and training students in the arts and, before moving to South Carolina in 2009, she had already influenced thousands of lives.
Why Did She Start Bluffton Youth Theatre?
When she came to Bluffton, she began to notice how rare theatres were, especially for the youth. Theatres that were inclusive and taught everyone were non existent. At the time, she was taking care of her father, which had been the whole reason she moved down south, so she could not devote her time to a theatre. In 2011, her father passed away and her responsibilities were now focused on her mother. Still, she knew she wanted to keep pursuing her mission. She held dance classes occasionally and opened her own home school where she would teach students who had struggled in the normal school environment. Then in 2015, she finally decided to open a performing arts center again, but this time focused on theatre, and opened the first youth theatre in Bluffton - Bluffton Youth Theatre.
Why choose the medium of theatre as opposed to another hobby or skill?
Cynthia always had a creative mind and she knew that theatre was a place for everyone. When you’re on stage, you can be someone completely different and that helps build confidence. You may be told that you’re wrong for being different than what society says is “normal”, but theatre doesn’t think like that. Theatre is a place for storytelling and it doesn’t care who tells it.
Why does BYT focus on
blending vs. just inclusion?
When looking at people who are dealing with different challenges, people always ask “How can I help you?” and although it is always good to help others, Cynthia believes that we should also be asking “How can they help me?” When we only focus on inclusion, we settle on the idea that the special needs community are people who need to be pitied and need to be fixed. Inclusion is beneficial for only those with special needs and makes us feel good about helping, but having a blended environment helps both groups.
Everyone in society has different strengths and weaknesses, but we tend to view those with special needs as only having weaknesses and that defines them. But they can teach us just as much as we can teach them. When we encourage a blended style at BYT, we foster friendships that may have never had a chance of happening elsewhere. We teach that your friendships don’t have to consist of people who look and act like you, but can be different and, in turn, you learn how to understand those that may be different than you.
Why is the mission of BYT so important for people to know about?
As a society, we are constantly viewing too many of God’s people as mistakes, but He does not make mistakes. Every person, no matter what challenges they face, plays a meaningful part in society. The dream of BYT is to start creating a world that is like the community we foster inside our walls - a place where you connect with people who are different and we all encourage one another to be the best version of themselves.
Cynthia also believes that when we ignore the strengths of the special needs community, we are missing out on the benefits of a whole population’s God given gifts. No matter what country you are in, special needs people are everywhere in every different group. We need to listen to people from all different groups, including those with special needs.
