Amputee woman defies odds to become dancer

ESKİŞEHİR

Dancing has given a Turkish woman a “breath of life” after she lost one of her legs and feet due to a birth defect. 

Tango and Waltz have “freed me,” Derya Soriç has told Demirören News Agency in an interview.

“One day I told myself I would dance on my two feet and create a butterfly effect on people, and now I see that I have accomplished this,” said Soriç.

The 29-year-old woman was born with myelomeningocele – a type of spina bifida. People with spina bifida are known to develop a wide variety of congenital and acquired orthopedic deformities.

At the age of 19 and 25, Soriç lost her right foot and her left leg respectively. But her condition did not demoralize Soriç, on the contrary, she enrolled in a ball dancing studio in the western province of Eskişehir to dance with her prosthesis.

In only two-and-a-half years, Soriç excelled in dancing, becoming an example for people with similar conditions. She now shares her story on social media, posting pictures and videos of herself dancing.

Soriç said that during her 20-year-long struggle with her condition, she had gone through a total of 33 operations.

“Every breath is a new story, and everyone has a struggle. This is what I believe in. I also share my stories [with people], the main reason here is [to convey] the idea that ‘You can also do it’ and ‘It is possible to live together.’ I am making up for the time that I lost under treatment and hospital,” she said.

Soriç said that she started dancing after one of her doctors showed her an example of an American model and dancer whose two legs were amputated. “He [the doctor] told me that he believed in me and that I can do this too. The only thing that I had in my mind that day was to dance,” she said. 

A Tango Eskişehir Dance School trainer and Soriç’s dance partner, Koray Orbay said that a woman in a wheelchair started taking classes after seeing Soriç dancing.

“It does not matter if you are wearing prosthetics or are in a wheelchair. Everything comes down to what you think,” Orbay said.

Soyiç and Orbay perform dances for many social responsibility projects.