Video by Marin Hulme and Emily Edens.

By Allie Arnold
Student Life Editor
@_alliearnold

Dancers rely on every part of their body in order to do what they do effectively. If an injury were to occur, it makes it difficult to do a lot of the moves that are required in most routines.

So what is someone who has been dancing their whole life supposed to do when their spine grows into a 60 degree curve?

Sophomore Lariette Kara Williams has been dancing for 11 years in every style created. Everything from jazz to African tribal funk, Williams has excelled.

“I’ll dance whatever style I can get my hands on,” Williams said. “Dance has been such a huge part of my life for so long. Once I started I couldn’t stop.”

Dancing had always come easily to her, making it a shock to her as well as her friends and family when she went in for her annual physical in the third grade and was informed she had scoliosis.

Williams was then sent to a back specialist at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas where she was told she had a 32 degree curve in her back and would need to wear a back brace 22 hours a day for the next four and a half years. The brace was designed to push her spine against the curve which was ultimately supposed to align it to a 10 degree angle or less, which would be considered spinal asymmetry, not scoliosis according to spine-health.com.

“They gave me so much information all at once, and obviously it was very difficult for a nine year old to understand all of the medical terms such as the causes and treatment options,” Williams said. “All I heard were a bunch of big words I didn’t understand and it really freaked me out, so I ultimately ended up fainting on my doctor.”

Wearing the brace was not bad for Williams at first. In fact, while she was still in elementary school, she enjoyed it.

“I thought wearing the back brace was really cool at first,” Williams said. “I always told people I had rock hard abs and made them punch my stomach. I thought it was so funny because it would hurt their hand and not hurt me at all.”

However, as time went on and middle school came, the brace wasn’t so “cool” anymore for Williams.

“With a big, bulky back brace there’s not really many clothes you can wear other than T-shirts,” Williams said. “So when I would go shopping with my friends I would go into stores and see so many cute clothes and think ‘can’t wear that, or that or that.’ People began judging me for my back brace and how it affected what I wore. It was frustrating and difficult to deal with.”

The back brace ended up not having the effect doctors anticipated. After a sudden growth spurt, Williams went back to the doctor only to find her spine had grown from a curve of 32 degrees to 60 degrees.

“They told me I had to have surgery as soon as possible and that basically it was now or never,” Williams said. “It was crazy because my back was finally going to be fixed and I was thrilled that I didn’t have to wear my brace anymore.”

Kara’s parents, Susan and Bill Williams, were concerned their daughter would not have the ability to try out for Silver Stars freshmen drill team at CHS, something she’s wanted to do since she was a little girl.

“Our biggest worry was that [Kara] was not going to be able to audition for Silver Stars, so we had to make sure the surgery date did not conflict with that in any way,” Mrs. Williams said. “We were thrilled because she recovered quickly, tried out, became an officer and was able to carry that strength forward and overcome her obstacles.”

The surgery took place in October 2013. The surgeons placed hooks on each side of William’s spine and pulled it millimeter by millimeter into a straight line, stopping often to check her vitals. After William’s spine was straight, the doctors put rods on both sides to hold her spine in place, putting in screws and fusing cadaver bones to her spine.

“The whole process has made me a lot stronger as a person,” Kara said. “I experienced so many things that impacted me both physically and emotionally and going through those trials has definitely bettered me as a person.”

Not only is Williams a stronger person post-scoliosis, she is also a much stronger and more passionate dancer.

“The doctors told me going into the surgery that there was a chance I could never dance again and that terrified me more than anything,” Kara said. “Coming out of the surgery able to move without too many restrictions and to do what I love was so eye opening. It made me a lot more thankful because I knew that there were probably many others who weren’t as lucky as I was.”

William’s scoliosis nor the rods in her spine have stopped her from being the incredible dancer that she is, and others have certainly taken notice.

“[Kara] works her tail off every day to become a better dancer,” Lariette director Julie Stralow said. “Yes, she is limited in some movements involving her back, but when those come up we just deal with them one at a time. She’s a great performer and one of the hardest working dancers on Lariettes, and it’s amazing because she has never once allowed her condition to get in the way of that.”