A Tragic Accident Left Her Paralyzed. Now She Dances on Wheels | Short Film Showcase

I don't look at my disability as good or bad or indifferent; it just is. So I don't spend any time thinking about what I could have accomplished had I not had that accident. I'm interested in what's going on right now. This is the body I have to dance in, so if I want to dance, I have to dance in this body at this time. You don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow because tomorrow hasn't happened yet.

My accident, time— you don't know what is around the corner. I mean, that day when I left my apartment to go to work, that day it was a day like any other day until it wasn't anymore. No, in two seconds, one piece of ice, and my whole world changed. So you just really don't know what life has in store for you.

Dancing, when I was a child, it was like a fairy tale for me; it was a different reality. I had a difficult childhood; I came from a pretty dysfunctional family. And so when I was dancing, I was never afraid— I could be a princess, I could be Sleeping Beauty, I could be myself. As I got older and my accident happened and other things in my life, I lost a child. The ritual and the discipline of dancing helped me to heal and to recover my center and to know who I was.

I'm always a dancer, no matter what happens; that stays constant. [Music] There's a lot of discipline that goes into this that perhaps you're not accustomed to because it seemed fairly lax— what I saw. But this is going to be more like any regular dance class that you go to. So if you want to do a showing before the end of the school year, you have to be here. It's very frustrating for me to knock myself out to come and try to make sure that you have a chair and Michelle has a chair, and then the wheels are popped up and all of that.

Where else do you think you're going to get that? No, we're so— all I can do is offer it, and you come and you take what you can from it because I already know how to do this. Say, I've been dancing for 57 years. When I started dancing in my wheelchair after my accident, there was no one to help me; I had to do it all on my own. So I wanted it to be an easier way for them to realize their full potential. That just because you have a disability doesn't mean you can't dance.

So many people, they only see the apparatus, and they call us wheelchair-bound. You know, that sounds like I'm tied into my chair against my will. You know, I'm not bound; I'm unbound. [Music]

Years ago, when I was a young student at the Washington Ballet, the great Agnes DeMille came as a guest artist. Now, Mr. Mill, she had a full figure; she had bosoms, and she had hips, and a nice round bum. And it was considered that Mr. Mill didn't have the right body type. I was small, I was short, and I wanted to be taller. So I fantasized about having a bone transplant in my legs.

One day, I asked Mr. Mill if she thought it was a good idea that I should get this bone transplant in my legs. She took my face in her hands and she said, "Kitty, dear, you have to learn to dance in the body you have." And that's what I teach all the other people with disabilities that I teach. If your body is your instrument and you are at war with your instrument, you will never make anything beautiful. You have to find peace with your instrument. [Music]

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And you wanted to write on your neck, not out here. That drop— look down at the floor on yours; just feel comfortable in the chair. Yeah, yeah, and it looks great on you. Okay. [Music]

Non-disabled people feel that the big tragedy of my life was my accident, and that's not true. The great tragedy of my life will be many years from now when I pass away and there's a student sitting at the bottom of a set of stairs wanting to go up and dance, and there's no way for them to get there and no one to teach them. That will be the big tragedy of my life. [Music] [Music] [Applause]

You [Music]