Thursday, August 27, 2009

Inspiration

I saw this posted on Facebook and wanted to share it. Amazing. Inspirational.

"In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV one very unique couple won one of the top prizes. The lady, in her 30's, was a dancer who had trained since she was a little girl. Later in life, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression for a few years.

Someone then asked her to coach a Children's dancing group. From that point on, she realized that she could not forget
dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. So, she started to do some of her old routines, but, having lost her arm, she had also lost her balance.

It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without falling. Then she heard of a man in his 20s who had lost a leg in an accident. He had also fallen into the usual denial, depression and anger type of emotional roller coaster.. But, she was determined to find him and persuade him to dance with her.. He had never danced, and to dance with one leg....are you joking with me?? "No way!"

But, she didn't give up, and he reluctantly agreed thinking, "I have nothing else to do anyway." She started to teach him dancing. The two broke up a few times because he had no concept of using muscle, how to control his body, and knew none of the basic things about dancing.. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually, they came back together and started training seriously.

They hired a choreographer to design routines for them. She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air.. He could bend horizontally supported by one leg with her leaning on him, etc..

In the competition, as you will see, they dance beautifully and they legitimately won the competition."


click here to see video

4 comments:

RJ said...

That performance was beyond words!!Truely amazing!!

Also I want to say how very sorry I was to hear about your loss of your cat Jake! I have lost many pets over the years so I know how you feel, it is a very hard loss. Again I am very sorry for your loss!

Jamie Rose said...

I know! I'm always thinking 'oh my god' I pray that nothing ever happens to my body to prevent me from dancing. And I see, once again, it's like Cubby said "Give up the image so you can see the vision."

Unknown said...

That was beautiful! It's like the Cirque Du Soleil piece I stumbled upon on Youtube. It's called solo on crutches or something similar. What the human body can do astounds me, then add a "defect" and continue on regardless and it brings me to my knees. Thanks for sharing another amazing snippet of human spirit in action.

Jamie Rose said...

Thanks Caitlin! And I'm going to the Berkshires with your dad the weekend of the 19th for his reading. I hope I get to see you.

xo
Jamie