"I started dancing when I was three. It was purely just because my friend from nursery was also going to dance. My friend quit but I kept going, and here I am many years later.

"At that point it was just a hobby but, very quickly, it became clear to me that it was something I wanted to do. I did my first panto - which was my first semi-professional job - when I was seven.

"When I was 13, I started experiencing pain in my left hip.At that point, I didn't even consider the thought of dancing on crutches because that wasn't something that anyone had ever mentioned. The doctors would do something and it would give me a bit of pain relief for a couple of months, so I'd go back to dance, but then I'd end up back on crutches. I eventually considered dancing on crutches when I was 20 years old.

"I studied theatre production because I thought no one was ever going to take me into a dance college on crutches. The minute I got there, I just knew that it wasn't right. Everyone else was really invested in lighting design and stage management, but I was just there because I wanted to be close to the stage.

"I realised it had to be all or nothing. I dropped out of that course, came home, and was very lost for a while.

"COVID-19 gave me a chance to experiment with dancing on crutches at home. I'd never done it before because the thought of going into a class and experimenting felt too scary, whereas in my own living room I could just play around.

"At that point, the auditions for drama schools were all online so I thought: 'I'll record the videos, I'll send them. If I get in, great.' I am proud to say that I did get into a musical theatre college, Performance Preparation Academy in Guildford, Surrey.

"There are very few dancers on crutches in musical theatre in this country. It's pretty much just me, so my college was thrown in the deep end. It was a lot of trial and error. It was hard and lonely at times, working things out on my own because I didn't really have any reference point.

Reimagining dance

"I would definitely say it is a whole new layer of dancing. I'm doing the same moves, but I'm using a different set of muscles. Even if it looks like I am doing the same as a non-disabled dancer next to me, my upper body is working 10 times harder than my lower body is. I had to learn a new language of movement.

"Sometimes when I go to dance classes, they'll do something that I'm unable to do, so I'll translate it into something I can do. They'll be like: 'Wait, I actually prefer that to what I was doing originally!' One of my teachers saw me do a 'drag turn' instead of steps, and now he puts it in everything because he loves it."

Filled with joy

"Using crutches has made the love I have for dance deeper. I had to push it away for so long, coming back and doing it as fully as I can has really filled my soul.

"I performed in Little Piece Of You at Theatre Royal Drury Lane at 25. It was my first experience of a professional production where it was just so easy to fix any problems. There was a time when I said: 'For that bit I need two crutches, but for the next bit I only need one.' They literally just hammered a hook into the set so I could hang my crutch.

"I posted a video on social media of a class I did and it got 15 million views. I had so many comments about how happy I looked. It wasn't even necessarily about my disability; they were able to see past that and just see a person loving dance.

"I've learned in the last year or two to take a step back and think: 'This is what I did as a kid as a hobby and now people are paying me to do it.' It just fills me with joy. I don't think I've ever really had anything else in my life that's ever come close to that level of joy.

"If I had to offer anyone advice, I would say give yourself some grace. You're not going to walk into it and think: 'I've nailed this.' Sometimes you have to give yourself time. Secondly, experiment with different things. Everyone dances in different ways. Eventually, something will click."

Photos: Rhiannon Noble; AnnaStills/iStockphoto/Getty Images; Fiona Whyte