Young ballerina dancing again after life-threatening accident

Ballerina Lucila Munaretto, 20, dances again on Nov. 8, 2015, just months after a serious rollerblading accident. (CTV News)

A young ballerina severely injured in a summer rollerblading accident is dancing again, calling the crash that nearly took her life “an amazing experience.”

“Maybe it’s weird to say that,” says 20-year-old Lucila Munaretto, laughing. “[But] everything happens for a reason.”

Munaretto was rollerblading in North Vancouver on Aug. 13 when she failed to stop at an intersection while coming down a steep hill. She smashed into the side of a mini-van, seriously injuring her head and body, and was in a medically-induced coma for nearly two weeks.

The ballerina was finally released from the hospital at the end of September – and visited her dance studio a day later with her mother at her side. Less than two weeks ago, doctors gave her the green light to start dancing again.

“It’s great to be back dancing, and to be doing what I love to do,” Munaretto says. “[Dancing] is my life, and I don’t know how to live without it. Fortunately, I’m able to come back to it.”

Munaretto came to Vancouver in 2012 when a scout from Coastal City Ballet offered her a scholarship. Her family had previously moved from their native Argentina to Brazil after she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Bolshoi Theatre School.

Coastal City Ballet co-founder and company director Andrea Allen says the young dancer is doing “really well” with her recovery.

“It's fun to watch her in class, she just has the biggest smile on her face,” Allen told CTV News in an email. “She was given the okay to start slowly back with some classes and she was in the studio the next day…not much is holding her back.”

Munaretto says she was keen to start dancing earlier, but doctors told her to be patient and wait.

“It was frustrating, but it’s always good to be careful,” she says with a chuckle. “Everyone needs some rest at some point of their life – and this was a forced rest.”

Now the young ballerina is learning how to dance again – just as she had to relearn other skills such as walking, feeding herself, and doing her hair.

“I’m learning everything again,” Munaretto says, noting that she is focusing on balance and strength. “Not just in dance, but in life…I’m enjoying my life as much as possible, because we don’t know when it’s going to end.”

A Go-Fund-Me page was created shortly after her accident to bring her family from Brazil to Vancouver, and to help cover the cost of Munaretto’s recovery. More than $42,000 has been raised so far, nearly half of the estimated $100,000 rehabilitation costs.

“I want to thank everyone who was supporting me,” she says, noting that many people sent her cards, emails, and even called her. “[People] have been so supportive. And even the people I don’t know – I never would have expected that type of response.”

Looking forward, Munaretto says she wants to perform again, while her long-term goal is to “dance forever.”

“Even if I have to be at the back of the stage and fake I’m dancing, I will be more than happy doing that,” Munaretto says, laughing. “If you have a plan for something and you want to do it, that’s the goal. You’re going to do it…Get your head up and go for it!”