— from an interview from a recent issue of Dance Notes.
 
George Velazquez Certainly Can... And He Does!

Before George Velazquez lost his leg in 1994 due to an accident, he was a very busy and successful professional dancer. He attended the world famous Julliard School for performing arts, danced on Broadway and was a sought after teacher of ballroom dancing. Over the years George has had many challenges and setbacks but because of his tenacity and courage has emerged as a significant force in the ballroom dance world. He still teaches and dances with his students, choreographs dance productions and is a motivational speaker at conferences for the disabled. George's love of dancing and of life is contagious. And two words not included in his vocabulary are, "I can't."

How did you get involved in the dance world?

As long as I can remember, I've always danced. My mother and father were dancers from way back. So when I was little boy, I remember dancing. When I got old enough to pay for my own dance lessons, I took ballroom dancing, jazz, tap, anything that I could get my hands on. And I had the knack for it. So here I am today.

How did you get involved in ballroom dancing?

I did that as a sideline while trying to get shows on Broadway. I taught lessons and took lessons and went to every audition you could possibly imagine. I got into A Chorus Line, was in a touring company of 42nd Street, and I was also in My One and Only with Tommy Tune. So I did quite a few shows and then I started getting too old! I had to go back to my main source, ballroom dancing, and I've been doing it ever since.

This is when you were in New York?

Yes. I lived in New York up until 1989 and then I moved to Georgia.

Why did you move?

I came for a visit and I loved it. No hustle and bustle. I felt I could live in this southern part of the state. And I've learned how to say, "ya'll"!

How did your accident happen?

I was working for Dancing Ballroom Studio in Atlanta, and we had been to a competition in Vegas. We got in early that morning, and that night I went to the studio to put the display up for the students, the trophies, the copies of the checks with the money they'd won, etc. Then I took all the boxes to throw them out and there was somebody fooling around behind the strip mall. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground, and when I went to get up, I passed out. When I woke up Wednesday, I found out that I had lost my leg. So everything went kind of upside down crazy.

So it was someone outside?

It was a hit and run, and I was a pedestrian.

How long were you in the hospital?

I was in the hospital for a week. During the time that I was there, just about everybody that knew me in Atlanta came to see me. When I woke up I thought I had died and went to heaven because my room was filled with flowers like I had never seen before. When I went home, I just didn't know what to expect. A few of my students called me and said, "You know, I'm going to wait for you to come back. I bought dance lessons, and you're my teacher, so..." I said, "Okay, I will do that." But I had no idea what was going to transpire. Three months down the line, I had gained about 15 pounds. I was on my way to see the doctor when I just said, "This has to stop." So I got my prosthetic leg and I started walking. The first thing I did after I started walking was five turns straight across my living room and I said, "I can turn, I can travel, I can dance!" And two weeks after that I was back on the dance floor working my way up. Then three months after I got my leg, I was at my very first dance competition with students. It was a pro/am comp and we did really well. Eventually I went out with my professional dance partner and entered one last dance competition to see how far I could go. I didn't win first, I was third, but in my heart, I won first!

Who was your partner?

Her name is Lady Farris. We danced in Texas at a National Dance Competition. She designs websites for a lot of people now. When I had my accident, her name and number were in my wallet, so she was the first person they contacted. Farris was there at the hospital for three days non-stop. She made all the phone calls, she's the one that got my family in, and passed the word around to my friends. She got in touch with the organizers of the competition and told them everything. I couldn't decide anything for myself because I was out cold. She made all the decisions for me at the hospital, so she was my heaven-sent saint. That's Farris. I love you baby!

When you found out you had lost your leg, what went through your mind?

Why didn't the truck finish me off? I was a dancer and all of a sudden I woke up and my leg was gone, and I felt, "Why didn't I just not wake up?" But people said to me, "This happened to you for a reason." I heard that for three and a half to four and a half years. And every time I heard it, I just got so angry.

How long ago was this?

August 1, 1994.

When did you start to feel better about it?

Well, you never feel better about it; you just feel that there are ways of dealing with it. You deal with it on a day to day basis. One day will be absolutely awesome, you go out and do everything you want to do, but if you've gone just a little too far, the next day you can't put your leg on. That is very disappointing. And you get a lot of those days until you start listening to your body. You learn that you can't go for 12 hours; you've got to go for 10 and stop. Your body might say, "go, go, go" but your leg is telling you, "Take me off!"

So that still happens now?

Yes. Till this day. You just deal with it. So I've learned that I can't really get out there and do all the dances. When they play Latin music, because it's a dance done in one spot, I can do my Latin dances and I go all out, on one leg.

You don't wear your leg?

Sometimes I don't.

How do you do that?

When you're a dancer, balance is incredible.

Do you still teach pro/am?

Yes. I work with six of my regular students and I do all the Latin dances. And I have a friend, Rick Pryor, who's a very good friend of mine. He'll work with them on all the smooth dances. I'm grateful that I have a friend that can pull it off for me.

So these six women that you have now, have they been with you since before the accident?

Yes. I have had two of them for the last 13 years. One is now dancing with another instructor, because she's young and she needs to get out there. I told her, "I really can't do all the dances. I have to give you up to somebody else." But she stuck by me for three years after my accident. The other thing is the age factor. I'm 51, but I still look good!

Did it change your perspective on teaching?

It made me a better teacher because I actually had to break everything down so that they would understand without me having to use both feet. My prosthetic doesn't have an ankle so when I would say to the student, "You need to use your toe," the student would say, "You're not using your toe." Then I would say, "Well, you have to make believe I am." That didn't work. So I had to learn how to actually bend my knee to make it look like my toe was moving in the right direction, which also made my hip move a little better. It's taught me to break the steps down in a lot more detail.

What was one of the hardest things to adjust to?

Getting dressed. I have to put the leg in the pants first and then put my pants on! That's because the leg doesn't have an ankle. So I push the leg through, put the shoe on it, put the pants down and then stick my leg in the leg...the part that's left, and then I pull my pants up. So when I did a competition, I basically wore black so I didn't have to change my pants, because it would take too long.

What are your frustrations?

My frustrations are that I want to be out there dancing and I can't. There's no category for one-legged dancers in competitions. That's the hard part. On a social basis, people see me dance and they say things like, "Wow, you're incredible!" But I always say, "You should've seen me when I had two legs." I make a joke of it, because if you don't, it can really wear you out.

So you said for about three or four years you were very angry. What made you get over the anger?

I had two choices. I either stay home and die or do something about it. So I chose to do something about it.

What did you choose to do about it?

Live. And come out to the competitions. I took my judge's exam so I could stay in the business, and I passed it with a 98.6, so I'm hired often to judge competitions. I do coaching and choreography, so I keep busy. I haven't become a hermit. I go out dancing, I teach my lessons. Once in a while when I've got the blues, I'll go home and watch a videotape of me when I used to compete. I'll give myself a good cry, and wipe the tears and say, "Okay, you used to be able to do that, but if I was 61 I couldn't do it either, so I'm just retiring a little bit early from the competitive circuit."

Does that happen less and less as the years go by?

It becomes easier, like I said; I chose to deal with it and I chose to live my life. I also give motivational speeches for new amputees to let them know that life is still fun. You can still have a good time. I started a wheelchair amputee touch dance company, and these people are just awesome. We do exhibitions for different groups, who are disabled, to let them know that once you lose a leg, an arm, or you're paralyzed, life isn't over. You're still the same person, you just can't do certain things the way you used to.

Do you teach workshops?

Yes. I tend to bring my wheelchair in case there are wheelchair people who are missing both legs. I'll bring my crutches and I'll wear my prosthesis. I teach them how to dance with the prosthesis, I teach them how to dance with the crutches and then I'll teach them how to dance in the wheelchair. The easiest dances to do are the Electric Slide and the Electric Cha Cha. They're line dances, but they learn the directions, forward, back, side, rocking motions. And these are things that, for a person with one leg, are hard to do, because they have to learn how to control it. So they learn to dance, they have fun and they get exercise, plus their center of balance starts to come back to them. Dancers do have a good sense of balance.

It's probably very challenging to teach them these things.

Right. And some of them danced many years ago, but after they lost their leg, they hadn't tried it again because they were afraid. And I help them break out of that shell and onto the dance floor. They've gone to parties and said to me, "Guess what?! I did the Electric Slide and it was great! I had a good time!" When a gentleman who lost both arms and both legs to electrocution first saw me, he said, "Can I learn how to do this?" and I said, "Sure." Three years later, I choreographed his wedding waltz and we all went to California to see him get married. He did his wedding waltz and it was perfect. He didn't make a mistake. At the end, he introduced me and said, "This is the gentleman who put my routine together," and I just cried like a baby. I was very proud of him and so was everybody else.

Do you travel around the country for these workshops?

Yes. Last week I was in North Carolina. There was a support group meeting and I was brought in to do the motivational speaking and do the dance class, because they had a dinner and dance afterwards. So I taught them the Electric Slide, the Electric Cha Cha, and then I showed them how to do a box step and I told them, "With this box you can do a rumba, you can do a fox trot, and if you take it nice and easy, you can do a waltz."

Do you find when you do these speeches that some people are not in a good place?

Some of them are in a very bad place, and some have come to these meetings because, at one time or another, they thought of suicide or have attempted suicide. They failed at it, which is good, and they're looking for help. I'm the one that's there to help. I go in there, and when I walk into the room, my presence is known. I've always been that way. Give me a microphone and I am on!

Does it bring you down or does that make you more motivated to get them out of it?

It motivates me more to get them out of it. When I see the faces and the reaction at the end of it all… that is the most gratifying experience you can have. I can see that people can be very depressed when they have a disability, because with social security disability insurance, you're just second-class. What they offer you to live on is beneath poverty, and you can't get a job anywhere. No one will hire you because you're a liability. So I'm glad I have the dance business. I own my own home. I have a nice car.

What are your goals?

Be a millionaire! My goal is one day to put an outrageous routine together with an awesome dance partner and just do it at one major dance competition. And tell the story, "this is the before and this is the after." I would also like to do it where there is a major group of physically disabled people there to see what can be done.

What's really mattered to you since you lost your leg?

I'm proud of my house. I keep a nice house. I don't ever have to say, "Please excuse the mess." I take pride in that. And I'm very lucky that I have the agility and the ability and the willpower and the get up and go to do that, as opposed to some who have given up. I cook for myself every day.

So you've learned to do just about everything.

There's nothing I can't do, other than run on two legs! I can hop really well though!

What else would you like to tell us about your experiences?

These words should never be in the dictionary-I can't. That does not exist in my dictionary. Because if I had said "I can't" I wouldn't be here doing this interview! Have fun! Enjoy life!