KEARNS — West Kearns Elementary's opera is an original: the libretto, score, and especially, the cast — all children with intellectual disabilities.

The school is believed to be the first in the nation to create an opera with special education students, teachers there say.

The children performed Tuesday for an audience that included Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., seated, at the students' invitation, among parents, peers and proud teachers. Tonight they perform "Giraffes Can Dance" — their adaptation of the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae — at the Children's Opera Showcase at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake at 6:30 p.m.

The opera came out of a summer workshop "Music! Words! Opera!" through the Utah Symphony and Opera about creating children's operas. This is the school's second special education production.

"We're always trying in special education things that will improve the quality of life for these children," speech therapist Kaye DuShane said. "Music will be part of their lives forever."

Opera is more than song and dance, the teachers say. It is a tool.

Consider: The opera involved 42 children with intellectual disabilities. Half require speech therapy; about two-thirds require occupational or physical therapy, said Constance Sniegocki, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade special education. Some struggle with basic speech. Yet they can sing an entire opera. Teachers say they've even seen a hard-of-hearing student sing on pitch and a child address behavioral problems beyond expectation.

Music engages a different part of the brain than regular speech, and helps with memorization, DuShane said. Children also have an emotional investment in the process, which helps with motivation. They adapted the storyline and learned the dances and libretto written by the teachers, who also composed the music.

"It makes them focus, it makes them pay attention, it makes them be stars, it makes everyone else out there know they can do everything anyone else does," Sniegocki said. "Everyone (now) knows how they could benefit from knowing our kids."

In "Giraffes Can't Dance," the title's animals discover and learn to dance to the music of their hearts.

"We all can belong," the children sing. "If you feel you are different, you might need another song. So dance, dance, find your own music, reach for the stars, be all that you are."

The message moves Melanie Hansen, whose 7-year-old son, Tyson Howick, plays the moon in the production.

"I never did think I'd get a chance to (see Tyson) perform with other kids in something like that," she said. "You don't hear about the handicapped kids getting these opportunities . . . (where they can) be a little bit more like other kids."

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