A Ballerina's Tale Page #4

---

I mean, he blew

his knees out from...

like, if you jump high,

you land hard.

Here she is

dealing with still pain,

trying to figure out,

"How am I going

to deal with this?

"But, oh, yeah,

I'm 29 years old,

and I'm dealing

with the end of my career."

She ended up going to a doctor

who works with top athletes

at the New York Hospital

for Special Surgery.

He was the only person

who was confident that this...

that you will dance again.

Everyone else was telling her,

"Your career is over."

So your diagnosis

is a mid-tibia stress fracture,

which occurs very commonly

in jumping athletes.

So the tibia bone...

which is, on her,

the mid-shaft leg bone...

it takes all the stress.

Instead of breaking in half,

it gets a tiny little break

in the cortex surface,

or the outer surface,

of the bone.

They're very slow healing,

so she spent months trying

to get this to heal beforehand,

and then we made a decision

about how to treat it.

We... our one decision

was take a... put a rod.

One option was to take...

go near her knee

and put a rod from here

all the way down

the bone in her leg

inside the bone.

The nice thing about that

is that it takes care

of the whole thing.

The disadvantage is,

about 20% of people

have some knee pain,

and she's a jumper,

so you try not

to mess with her knee at all.

We made an incision

right here in the front,

and in that incision,

we found the little

stress fractures,

we drilled across them

with a needle

to stimulate some bleeding,

we packed the bone marrow

cells in there,

and then we put the plate.

When I heard the words

"black dreaded line fracture,"

that sounds like death to me.

Like, hearing that word,

it was like,

"What does that mean?"

It was scary.

And then finding out

that it meant

almost a complete break

through my bone...

it's hard to fathom that

that can happen from dancing,

but it was just impact

over and over and over again,

probably through

the course of a year,

that caused it.

Had I continued to dance

for who knows how much longer,

my bone could have

completely snapped in half.

The rest of the ballet world,

including, I think, her company,

once they realized, you know,

the extent of her injuries,

I don't think anyone

truly expected her

to be able

to come back from that.

You know, you combine

the extent of the injury

with her age,

the amount of wear and tear

on the body,

I think that they

just sort of said,

"One plus one plus one

equals three,

"and you're not coming back,

"and if you do come back,

you won't be able to come back

and be... you won't be able

to pick up where you left off."

In a company like ABT,

the talent is endless.

The second you step out

for, you know,

the length of time an injury

may take to recover from,

you lose that

window of opportunity,

and you may never be given

the opportunity again.

But there was a lot of time

spent just, like,

overanalyzing all of that.

Like, "What am I gonna do?"

I felt like I was gonna

let down so many people

who were, like, watching me.

Like, you're creating this path,

and then it was like,

"Okay, that's the end of it."

It's been, like, seven months

since I've been working

with Marjorie

on floor barre.

I still have a lot to learn.

Want to try it

on the other side?

Sure.

If you stand at the barre

the way we always do

and will continue to do,

you can work your right side

and your left side

differently for a lifetime

or until something breaks.

That's true.

That's the way it goes.

Try not to sit

in the standing hip.

Good.

As dancers, we know

one leg goes up higher,

one leg jumps better,

and the other leg

balances better.

Whatever that is,

we need to become

as symmetrical as possible.

Want to start again?

Don't bring it up

from your quad.

Really lengthen

through the inner thigh.

So I was working with Marjorie

maybe two months

before I decided

to have the surgery.

And then Marjorie

was there with me,

I think, two weeks

after my surgery

in my apartment,

helping me, you know...

I was not walking still,

and we were laying on the floor,

and she was working with me

until I literally

couldn't anymore.

I was just, like, exhausted.

She's kind of

been there with me,

literally retraining my body

in the middle

of my professional career.

- Middy.

- Michele!

- Hey.

- Oh, my God.

I had no idea

it started at 1:
00.

- I'm here.

- Oh, my gosh, sorry.

No, it's not your... honey,

you have enough to worry about.

Did I... I thought we said...

You have a company to run

and some roles to dance.

- Hi.

- How are you?

I'm good.

How are you doing?

Yeah, me too.

I remember being

in class with Michele,

like, sitting on the floor

of Marjorie's apartment,

and I was contemplating, like,

when I was gonna go back to ABT.

They were really, like,

nudging me, like,

"You need to come now,"

and I was like,

"I'm not ready;

I'm not ready."

Michele Wiles started BalletNext

with Charles Askegard,

was a principal dancer

with American Ballet Theatre,

and she was a good friend

of mine.

And Michele said,

"Why don't you do

a performance with us first,

and maybe you'll feel

more comfortable and secure?"

And I was like, "Oh, my gosh.

I don't know."

She's like,

"Why don't you do something

"that's more simple, you know,

doesn't take a lot,

there's no jumping,"

and, "Why don't you do

'The Dying Swan'?"

And I was like,

"That's brilliant,

but I'm terrified."

- There's the superstar.

- Are you done here?

- Merde, yes.

- Okay.

- Have fun, okay?

- Thank you.

Well, what did you think, Coach?

It was okay.

Um...

I didn't fall.

It just wasn't, like,

what I'm used to.

I didn't use the space

like I should have,

but no stumbling,

so it was okay.

People liked it.

- It was beautiful.

- Thank you.

Hopefully tomorrow

I'll feel better.

That was rough.

First time... first time

in the game in a while.

First time in a year.

I'm glad that's over.

Well...

I am.

I know...

- I know you!

- Hey.

- I've been listening.

- You hot, beautiful girl.

Everyone gets confused

and gets off

on the second floor...

- I did.

- Because it's 29.

I know; every single one

of my girlfriends do.

Oh, I'm so glad

I'm not the only dummy.

No, it's not dumb at all.

I'm Nelson.

- I met you at the...

- Yeah, I know.

- I remember.

- Good to see you again.

Good to see you again.

We were tooling around

on the stage...

Absolutely, absolutely.

It was beautiful.

Trying to find

our way in and out.

- Good.

- Bless her heart.

I'm worried about her, you know.

She doesn't worry

about anything.

How... you were gonna

do everything today.

Look at you,

how beautiful you look.

I did the show last night,

and then...

- Oh, you did?

- Yeah.

'Cause I didn't know

whether it was tonight.

It's tonight as well.

- Oh!

- Yeah.

And I thought to myself,

"How's she doing?"

Did you take class?

Yeah, I already took

Rate this script:1.3 / 3 votes