Five weeks ago my close friend & dance partner of six years, Amanda Oakley invited me to perform in I Witness, Tutto Theatre Company’s latest show that includes contemporary dance intermixed with spoken word. Excited for a new opportunity, I agreed. She then told me that we had only five weeks to put together a full-length show with almost all brand new choreography. I laughed at the prospect, but was definitely game for the challenge.
It has been well over a year since I’ve been involved in a dance project so I’d been itching for a performance opportunity for months. Last May I injured my ankle during a rehearsal, and spent four months in physical therapy. A month later a mastiff decided to take a bite out of that same ankle, tearing my Achilles tendon & damaging an already tender ligament. Fourteen stitches, a gawky cast boot for 3 months, and 6 more months of physical therapy later, I was released from the doctor’s care. Frustration oozed from my soul at the thought that dance may no longer be the thing I had always turned to for release and that it was taken from me much sooner than I ever expected.
During the many months of recovery I felt my life fall away from me in other areas, too – I suffered through a break up with a partner of almost six years, lost my dog to a cancerous tumor, opened my home to strangers I found on craigslist in order to make the mortgage each month… I’ll stop here. It was by far the darkest time of my life, my own personal nightmare, and I was blanketed with despair without the first clue on how I was going to get back to a happy place. Continue reading
