Amazing Art

Jon shared this. If you want to hear this you may need to pause the automatic song in the right sidebar.

This is the story of Ma Li and Zhai Xiaowei as I heard it (I have not authenticated it):

She was a teenage dancer in China, having trained from early childhood, when she lost her left arm in a car accident. Depressed, she turned away from dancing for awhile. But when asked to coach a group of children, she realized her love of dance was still there.

She returned to dancing, finding at first that it was difficult to maintain balance in her turns and spins without her lost limb. But gradually she learned to compensate.

A number of years later, she heard of a young man in his 20's who had lost his leg. He, too, was going through the roller coaster emotions of denial, depression and anger that she had gone through. Although he had never danced before, she talked him into trying it. It was a challenge for both of them. They separated several times when the frustration became too great. He had no concept of how to use his muscles or even the most basic dance steps.

Eventually, they broke through their frustrations and went back to training, hiring a choreographer to design routines for them.