Injured ballet dancer returns to stage

October 29, 2017 11:10 pm

By: Rebecca Turco

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Providence ballet dancer seriously hurt in a hit and run accident has returned to the stage.

In June, Jordan Nelson was riding his bike along Hope Street when a car hit him then took off, leaving Nelson stranded with serious injuries – including skull fractures and a broken clavicle.

Doctors said he would never dance again, but Nelson would not take “no” for an answer. "I just never gave myself the option that there was anything other than that,” he told ABC6 News. “I wasn’t going to not go back."

When Nelson was released from the hospital, the first place he went to was the dance studio, to tell his fellow dancers he would be back.

Instead of physical therapy, Nelson put back on his ballet shoes. He began with legwork and long walks, before regaining his upper body strength.

"I kind of hand to teach myself to reuse my body again and rebuild from square one,” Nelson said. "It has been the single hardest thing I’ve done in my life.

"By some miracle, he surprised us all,” explained Festival Ballet Providence Artistic Director Misha Djuric. “He surprised the doctors, he surprised us."

Now Nelson is happy to be back home on stage. "I’m stronger than I’ve ever been,” he said.

As for the hit and run, police never found the driver.