Jean Bratvold says she always dreamed of being a dancer. "I always wanted to dance all through my childhood and through my adulthood I just always wanted to dance.” But dancing wasn’t really an option for Jean. She developed rheumatoid arthritis when she was just an infant.

“As I got older and the disease progressed I ended up having five total joint replacements.” In November Jean dislocated one of those joint replacements in her hip. “I did it putting on a pair of socks and I decided you know, if I’m going to dislocate my joint putting on a pair of socks then it might just well be during dance.”

So Jean signed herself up for the Life Movement Dance Program. Camelle Romero is the creator of the unique form of physical therapy. She says, “It’s a program I developed about 15 years ago. It consists of anybody that has a neuro-disorder, stroke or any kind of physical balance problem. What I do is create a new balance and center for them and get them to dance.”

Just a few months ago Jean was having trouble walking and was basically dragging the left side of her body. Now she’s able to glide across the dance floor. “You say to yourself, I am a dancer instead of I want to dance and when I say that my shoulders go back and my head comes up and my butt tucks in my footsteps quicken and my body moves.” Camelle says, “I have a philosophy if you can stand and take one step you can learn how to dance.”

Talk with your physician to see if Life Movement dancing could be a good fit for you. The Life Movement Dance Program is a non-profit organization that’s supported by donations.