Titanium rods in her spine can't keep this Toronto teen from the stage : Toronto

Just 3 months ago, Jaya Scott underwent surgery for scoliosis. Now she's one of CNE's 'Rising Stars'

Warming up backstage before recital is a routine that Jaya Scott has performed dozens of times, but for the 17-year-old from Scarborough, Sunday night was special.

The young dancer took to the stage for the first time since undergoing spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis at SickKids Hospital — something she feared could mean the end of her dance career.

It was about two years ago when Scott's mother first sensed something was wrong.

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"I was just noticing a little bit of her back sticking out when she bent, and her shoulder was slightly off-balance," Natalie Scott said.

An 'intense' year

Scott took her daughter to the hospital, where they were referred to a specialist. It wasn't long before she was fitted with a brace and told she'd have to wear it 23 hours a day.

For the next year and a half, Scott said she watched as her daughter struggled, on a waiting list for surgery with no fixed date in sight.

"Wearing it at school each day, taking it off to dance, putting it back on and trying to cover it underneath her clothes," she said. "It was quite an intense year and a half."

In May, it was finally time to go under the knife. Over the course of nine hours, doctors would place two titanium rods on either side of Jaya's spine to correct a 60-degree C-shaped curve.

Over the course of nine hours, two titanium rods would be placed on either side of Jaya's spine to correct a 60-degree C-shaped curve. (Submitted)

All the while, Scott said Jaya was fixated on one thing only: "Mom, am I going to be able to dance again?"

Discovering new ways to move

Doctors assured Jaya she would. But before she could dance, she'd first have to relearn how to walk.

"It was a little bit of a struggle at the hospital at first," Scott recalled. But with each passing day, Jaya was exercising a little more, walking a little more, and getting that much closer to the stage again.

Before she was diagnosed with scoliosis, Jaya's dance specialty was contortion. But the metal rods in her back meant that was now physically impossible. 

Warming up backstage before recital is a routine that Jaya Scott has performed dozens of times, but for the 17-year-old from Scarborough, Sunday night was special. (Barry Smith/CBC)

"It was hard because I had to discover new ways to move my body and new things to do other than contortion because that's what my body's used to," Jaya said. "It was challenging at first."

Jaya was just grateful she'd be able to dance at all, especially after having to sit on the sidelines as her teammates competed this year.

Then, two weeks ago, came the news Jaya had been waiting for: Her doctor gave her the clearance to dance again — just in time for the Rising Star talent competition at the Canadian National Exhibition.

'You've got to walk before you can dance'

Jaya was elated.

"I just hope to be the best that I can be," the teen told CBC Toronto ahead of her performance.

If the crowd's reaction was any indication, Jaya did exactly that, wowing the audience with a jazz routine choreographed to the classic I Put A Spell On You.

Jaya's mother, Natalie Scott, said she motivated her daughter through recovery by telling her, "You've got to walk before you can dance." On Sunday night, she did just that. (Submitted)

"When I'm dancing it's like I'm telling a story," she said. "It's very meditative, I just feel relaxed when I dance and I feel like I can just express myself.

For her mother, who watched as her daughter's confidence shrank under the weight of a brace for more than a year, seeing Jaya dance in that effortless-looking way was worth all those nights of anxiety spent showing her success stories of people who'd managed to take up their passions again after surgery.

"One of the things I would keep saying to her is, 'You've got to walk before you can dance.'"

An on Sunday, Jaya did.

Source : CBC News , 28th Aug 2017