March 30, 2026

Center Stage: Haley’s Story of Hard Work, and the Spotlight For Which She Was Born

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A story of creativity, courage, and one woman's unstoppable pursuit of her dream.

There’s a moment in every great performance when the audience forgets they’re watching a show. The lights, the music, the magic transport the audience to another world that feels undeniably real. For Haley, that moment is something she creates. And she has been working toward it her whole life.

Where She Belongs

Walk into Hudson Valley InterArts on any given day and you might find Haley surrounded by the squish of clay, the bright flash of ceramic glazes, the hum of music drifting from another room. A multi-art hub for creativity and connection, InterArts brings professional artists and passionate participants together for exploration, creativity, and development. For Haley, it is so much more than a place to take classes. It is a place where she is seen, celebrated, and surrounded by people who share her love of the arts.

“I feel amazing! I’m happy!” she says, and you believe her completely.

What makes her happy? “Dancing, acting, and hanging out with my friends.” Haley’s joy is genuine.

Together Against Loneliness

This year, World Down Syndrome Day carries a theme close to the heart of everything InterArts stands for: Together Against Loneliness. It is a call to recognize that belonging — real, felt, everyday belonging — is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

InterArts answers that call in a deeply practical way. When you build relationships around a shared artistic practice, something happens that no program or policy can manufacture on its own. You find your people.

For Haley, the friendships she has formed through her creative life at InterArts are inseparable from the art itself. “I like to perform in front of the audience and see my friends and family from the stage,” she says. The stage, for her, is a place of profound connection, where she can look out at the people she loves and share herself with them through performance. Art at its core is connection, and Haley understands this instinctively.

The Seed That Was Planted

Every dreamer has a moment when the dream takes root. For Haley, it was a trip to Broadway as a child to see The Lion King. She sat in the darkened theater, watching characters sing “They Live in You,” and something inside her shifted — permanently.

“Ever since then, I wanted to be an actress and be in the movies,” she says, her eyes carrying the glimmer of that memory even now.

She didn’t file that dream away. She chased it. She started performing as a preteen, stepping into the work early and never looking back. “They tell me I’m beautiful and I’m talented in acting. I started at 10 or 11. I wanted to do it.” That last part says everything: I wanted to do it. Not pushed, not steered — driven by her own fire.

Dorothy Has Entered the Building

That fire is burning brighter than ever right now, because Haley has landed a lead role as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

The excitement in her voice when she talks about it is truly contagious. But what’s equally striking is her seriousness about the craft. Dreams alone don’t carry you to the stage — preparation does. And Haley knows this.

“I like practicing my lines. It’s not hard for me to remember them,” she says with quiet confidence. This is someone who has done the work, who shows up, who takes the role seriously. The spotlight doesn’t make Haley nervous — or rather, it does, but she has made peace with that.

“I’m happy and always excited and sometimes I get nervous, but nervous and excited at the same time. I really love it and it’s my dream to have.”

Nervous and excited — anyone who has ever stepped onto a stage knows exactly what that feels like. It is the feeling of being alive in the pursuit of something that matters to you.

A Love for the Arts, in All Its Forms

Acting may be Haley’s true passion, but creativity runs through everything she does. She dances to hip hop, and is a fan of Michael Jackson and Selena Gomez. She works with clay and color. She moves through the world of creativity at InterArts not as a visitor, but as someone who belongs there — someone who has always belonged there.

“I like to perform in front of the audience and seeing my friends and family from the stage,” she says. There is something profound in that image: Haley on stage, looking out at the people she loves, sharing herself with them through performance. Art, at its core, is connection — and Haley understands this instinctively.

The Biggest Dream of All

Ask Haley about her future and she doesn’t hesitate: “My biggest dream of all is acting and to be in movies and be famous.”

It is a bold dream, and it is entirely hers. This Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Haley’s story is a reminder that ambition belongs to everyone. That creativity belongs to everyone. That the drive to work hard, get on stage, memorize the lines, and show up — night after night, rehearsal after rehearsal — belongs to everyone.

Haley is not waiting for permission to dream big. She never has been.

She is already doing the work. And one day soon, the curtain will rise on Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and Haley will step into the light she has been walking toward since she was a little girl in a Broadway theater, watching a story unfold and thinking: that could be me.

It is her. It always was.

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