When I lay on the floor of the dance studio after hearing a horrific bone-cracking snap, knowing something in my foot or ankle was broken but not knowing what as the pain engulfed the whole lower extremity, all I could think was “What if I can never dance again?” The furthest thing from my thoughts as I tried not to have a complete meltdown in front of everyone, tried not to think that I had just lost the biggest part of my identity and biggest passion in life with one misplaced jump, was that there might be a silver lining to my injury.
Now, not fully recovered (yet) but able to do light dancing, I’ve found that silver lining. At a time when I see dedicated dance friends struggling to find their motivation to take class every day in their home with the teacher on a computer or phone screen, with no in-person peers to push or encourage them, I find motivation pouring out of me. Because I can dance. Because two-and-a-half months ago, before I’d found the best orthopedic foot surgeon in the business, the urgent care doctor looked at me with pity and instructed me to take deep breaths as she told me I might never be able to dance at the same level again and wouldn’t even get off crutches for 2 months. Because she was wrong.
There will come a day that this body can’t dance anymore. But that day is not today. So today, no matter what, I dance.
