Finding the opportunities in hardship through art

This blog has discussed the many health benefits of music in keeping you healthy. But music (and other performing arts) also offers benefits for those who have suffered through health adversities.

One such person is Linda Grenis, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and used yoga to help her through the process of surgery and recovery. Last month, Roxey Ballet, a contemporary ballet company in Lambertville, NJ, teamed up with songwriting team Robert Maggio and Matthew Hardy, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, the Princeton YWCA’s Breast Cancer Resource Center and other organizations to create a dance based on the stories of breast cancer survivors, including Grenis.

“That yoga teacher said to me, when she said you have to learn to love your breast cancer, she said, ‘What are the opportunities? What are the blessings?” said Grenis. “Who would have thought this would have been an opportunity, to be in a ballet and dancing in a song about yoga?”

A Tempo, on WWFM, did a story about the production – its host, Rachel Katz, was one of the participants in the ballet.