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Struggling to move: Parkinson's disease took her dance away, but dance gave back.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

I was reading the newspaper and it started to flutter, as if moved by a small breeze. But the window wasn't open and the fan wasn't on. Strange, I thought, as I traced the origin of the movement to my left hand. I watched the hand carefully, without emotion, as it quivered ever so slightly. Had I not been holding the paper, I would not have noticed it at all.

That was the first sign of my Parkinson's disease, which I was diagnosed with two years later at the age of 42. From this small, almost imperceptible beginning, my symptoms grew to where it was difficult to walk across the room without lurching violently from one piece of furniture to the next, grabbing each to stabilize myself.

For anyone, learning that you have a serious illness is a shock. But for a dancer, having a condition that directly affects your ability to move is profoundly shattering. I began dancing when I was in high school. For most of my adolescence and all of my adult life, my world had been centered on class, rehearsal, performance, and teaching. I had been an associate...

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