Thomas

At that time, I was 49 years old and weighed almost 300 pounds. They enrolled me in a cardiac rehabilitation program to develop a different lifestyle. My wife, looking for something we could do together for exercise, bought me a couple introductory dance lessons (she did not trust me to exercise my myself). We had always enjoyed dancing socially together and sounded like a good idea. We became addicted to it, and over the course of six months I lost over 85 pounds!

Suzanne

I’ve never been athletic in my entire life. Trying ballroom was on my bucket list, but totally outside my comfort zone. I never expected it to become such an important part of my life. My time in the ballroom is an escape from any kind of stress and is often the best time of my week. I went through an ugly personal situation a few years ago and I found such relief/escape in dancing. Dancing has been great for my self-confidence.

Tamirra

I had a head injury in 1991. I went into a coma for 18 hours and wasn’t expected to live. I obviously did but I had to learn everything again–walking, talking–basically I had to make a Tamirra. I was also diagnosed with epilepsy. Fast forward to roughly eight years ago when I started dancing. Not only did I do things for the first time like balance in heels no less, walk across a floor with my eyes closed and something about the movement and the music was helping with my seizures. They are going way down.

Heidy

If it weren’t for dance, I would not have had the muscle development to spare (muscles my body had to use for nutrition in the hardest months prior to surgery). I also wouldn’t have had the mental training to work on small things with patience and understand that healing, just like dance, is not a straight line forward. I also have an unusual understanding of my body because of dance. It has sustained me mentally and physically and is still the only movement that does not hurt. I don’t understand it, but my 80-year-old aunt, a professional belly dancer and teacher, agrees. It might be hard getting out of bed, but dancing feels like flying.

Liz

Right after 9/11 happened, I left nursing school to go join the Army. I became a paratrooper and served as a Combat Medic with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan. And, despite what some believed back then, women did serve on the front lines...I was one of them. When I got out of the military, I had a really difficult time letting go of the experiences and traumas of war. I couldn’t connect socially and emotionally with people, which made it more difficult to seek help for the PTSD I was experiencing.

There were times where I was depressed to the point of feeling suicidal and my anxiety was so bad that I couldn’t leave the house. I hit a breaking point where I knew that, if something didn’t change, I would become another statistic. Ballroom didn’t just save my life, it brought me back to life. Not only did it give me a way to connect with people, but it was also an artistic outlet that allowed me to process and express emotions that I had never been able to before.

Jill

Fast forward to 2016 when I found out I needed open heart surgery for a new valve and aortic aneurysm repair. Dance keeps me healthy and the partnership with my instructor made it a safe place where I just danced and trusted him which enabled me to push myself. It kept me healthy before surgery which was on 12/5 and I was back in the studio on 3/21. Dance helped me to relearn the capabilities of my body after a significant trauma to it and a whole new appreciation for movement. With the help of dance, I now run 5Ks, work full time and write but I consider the ballroom my haven to express myself through and test limits mentally and physically.