Home
| Dance Classes
| Dance Types
| Wedding Dance
| Trainers
| Studios
| Articles
| Movies
| Services
| Events
| Forums
| Job Opportunities
| Conditions
of Use
| Contact
Us
|
|
|
Dancesport
Articles - Curved Spines and Dancesport, Robin & Pele's real life
story
Article written by : Robin Chee, 12 Aug 01 |
Scoliosis
is a condition where the spine is laterally curved and twisted. (See X ray of
my spine on the left). Since the ribs are connected to the spine, the rib cage
also becomes distorted, which affects the organs inside rib cage (heart, lungs).
Since the age of 15, I was
diagnosed with Scoliosis and was under treatment with a rigid Milwaukee body
brace. It was a very ugly and uncomfortable structure from hip to neck and had
to be worn for 23 hours a day till I was 18. The other option was surgery that
would fuse my spine and leave me inflexible, thus ending any possibility of
vigorous activity, like Dancesport.
Surgery was not an option I was prepared to undergo, which had many potential,
irreversible adverse side effects. That was one of the darkest points in my
life; with being the brunt of jokes by fellow schoolmates were the norm.
Despite that, I continued with my activities in the Boy Scouts and eventually obtained the President’s Scout Award (equivalent to a Queen’s Scout or Eagle Scout Award). By the time I was 18, I was pronounced stable and discharged from having to wear the brace and thus ended the 3 years of torment and torture. However, I was classified as medically unfit and hence was excused from Basic Military Training, which is compulsory for all eligible males in Singapore
To celebrate my newfound freedom, I started learning dancing when I was 18 years old. Due to my curved spine, co-ordination was a problem, so much so that my first instructor told me that I was his worst student in all his 20 years of dance teaching. Fortunately, through much perseverance and patience on my teacher’s part, I got to an acceptable social dancing level.
Many years later, I met a wonderful lady, Pele; who later became my wife. She was a social dancer, but quickly became my Standard Dancesport partner within a span of 1 year. Despite my condition, we speedily rose to become a formidable force in Singapore Standard Dancesport.
However, many of the other dancing couples did not understand my medical problem and we were scolded many times for blocking their paths, crashing into them or we ended up tripping and falling on the dance floor. Also, many of our teachers, including those from UK which we had short stints with, thought we were either too stupid, un-teachable or rebellious to follow their instructions properly. It was near impossible to get the promenade position and contra body movement to what the teachers wanted. Getting my left side towards the lady was also extremely challenging.
Due to Scoliosis, my spine
is not only curved, but also rotated. This basically means that the upper and
lower body was off center, thus making positions like promenade really confusing
for the lady, with the upper body pointing one direction, while the lower body
pointed another different direction. That was the real reason why we always
crossed-paths with each other and ended sprawling on the ground during practices
before the Scoliosis treatment.
Dancing tango was a duel as our knees were always digging into each other; sprained
ankles and scraped knees were common occurrences. Poor Pele, she took a number
of the tumbles and had to constantly carry blue and black bruises around. To
circumvent that problem, we built up on other aspects of our dancing to hide
our shortcomings, which worked well to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, even though
dancing helped maintain my posture, which reduced the symptoms for the past
20 years, as age caught up, my Scoliosis started to become worse. Backaches
became more severe and frequent, and short practices left me with pain and breathless.
At that time, I found a new treatment in the USA that could partially rectify
my Scoliosis without surgery. Not wanting to face surgery, I eventually chose
to undergo this treatment for my Scoliosis.
Called the Copes method, treatment was extremely intensive, involving wearing
a body brace for 18 hours a day, therapy, exercises, chiropractor sessions,
supplements etc. Having to re-enact the previous torturous 3 year’s body
brace treatment during my teenage years and most likely having to endure taunting
by immature people was my worst nightmare relived, but fortunately adults were
much kinder than teenagers and my colleagues and sub-ordinates were very supportive.
Many of our dancing friends were initially shocked but were very encouraging
too. Although we did not require it, some of our Dancesport friends even wanted
to start a ‘Save Robin’ fund for me, which touched us very much.
It was really painful and
frustrating during the first few months of the Copes treatment. Our whole life
revolved round my treatment and many times tempers flared. Needless to say,
our Dancesport career came to a screeching halt. My wife and I were extremely
depressed, having to stop at the peak our Dancesport career.
It was one of the darkest periods of our lives together, having to be treated
as handicapped (being certified by the Singapore Handicap Association as one),
from our days as a very promising Dancesport couple. We saw our peers continued
to improve, while we degenerated. Our very popular RpMerleon
Dancesport website (http://www.rpmerleon.com) was neglected as we became
despondent due to despair and having to spend so much time on my treatment.
My wife did consider looking for another partner at that time for the duration of my treatment. While she did not discuss this with me at that moment, she eventually decided against that and put her whole heart to support me in whichever manner possible. Looking back, I realized what pain and sacrifice my wife went through to support me by sacrificing her youth and talent. Not to mention dancing was her only form of keep fit exercise and her main hobbies; and I really appreciate and love her for that.
Two years went by and my condition became slightly better with treatment, though no way near being normal. Feeling a bit less depressed, we decided to start some dancing practice just for fun. Initially, it was really frustrating; as we could not remember many of the steps taught, not to mention any bodily contacts while dancing. Many practices later, we gradually got better, and in fact found that many of the steps (like promenade) that I had difficulty doing before, had become easier. We attributed that to the improved posture and de-rotation of my spine with the past 2 years of treatment.
As we were in our fifth year of marriage and just became eligible for the Senior Dancesport categories, we decided to take part in the 14th Lion City International Dancesport Championships, just for fun and as an anniversary celebration. Our teachers welcomed us back with open arms and were a great source of morale support. We started lessons in Latin, and did improve a little bit. Encouraged, we started to renew updating our RpMerleon Dancesport website.
Although we did not enter the final rounds in our first Senior competition, we came short of the Senior Standard Final (7th place), beating many of our previous local opponents, including some Japanese, in spite of being out of action for 2 years with just 4 months of lessons (actually just one lesson of Standard, with the rest in Latin) and practices. Ironically, despite our difficulties in Standard dances and having spent almost all lessons in Latin, our teachers and friends commented that our potential in Standard is much higher than in Latin!
I’m really happy with
this result and I thank my parents, wife, teachers and all our friends for all
the support given during this difficult period. Even though we understand that
my recent 2 years of Copes treatment might only last for the next decade and
that I most probably will have to wear a retainer brace everyday for the rest
of my life, my wife and I look forward to furthering our Dancesport career once
again.
We resolved to continue to dance and not let my handicap impede our dancing
for as long as we can. To fellow dancers with the same condition; especially
those I don't get to know personally, don’t despair; there is life after
Scoliosis!
Check out the article
on our other website devoted to Scoliosis (Scoliosis
Support Forums)and give us your comments.
Last updated: 13 Nov 01.
