Selma Blair © Photo by Bang Showbiz
Selma Blair felt she was part of a “fairy tale” when she danced without a cane on ‘Dancing With the Stars’.
The 50-year-old actress – who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2016 – admitted it was an “amazing” experience to perform her emotional Viennese waltz routine to David Cook’s ‘Time of My Life’ with only her partner Sasha Farber for support.
She told ‘Extra’: “It felt amazing. I actually never had a dance before with anyone… I never had someone ask me to dance in that way. To learn at least one dance, I mean the gratitude.
“To have Sasha hold me in a frame so I could leave my walking assistance behind and feel like, ‘Wow, he can help me be fluid and move,’ and knowing how much support from people literally, physically, and figuratively, what it means and it feels so good… it did, it felt like a fairy tale.
“My cane has been amazing… I have such balance issues… I have such love for my cane, for all my canes, but to leave it behind and say, ‘I am going to have a person support me now,’ it’s a totally new thing, physically… I have been a single mom. I’ve always loved supporting people, and then to have so many people support me, heaven.”
The ‘Cruel Intentions’ star praised her dance partner for his reassurance that she could perform without her walking aid.
She added: “I’m so proud, I am so proud of Sasha for really convincing me that… he wouldn’t let me go and I feel good, I feel good, physically I feel good and I am getting stronger.”
And Selma hopes taking part of the show will help her get “stronger” as the series progresses.
She said: “The main thing was I had really kind of stalled in a point of recovery. I just couldn’t get motivated to get stronger… Then this opportunity came and for the first time in my life I was like, ‘Yeah, it makes sense…’ I want to start learning how to build myself up again.
“Even though I am comfortable with myself, I have been not that strong. I just want to say, I think that people might look at MS or chronic illnesses as one thing, but all of us in the community know, it’s just as varied as everyone else everywhere, and with support it’s amazing what we can do.”
—Reuters
