Childhood dream dances into a living reality

Linda Bruseth started dancing socially about 10 years ago.

Country line dancing and partner dancing went from a weekly jaunt to a lifestyle.

From international ballroom and Latin to country-western dance, she competes and moves to an internal beat.

Bruseth has a certain grace. Her posture and gait are graceful.

Even seated, she holds herself with poise.

It has not always been that way. A minor head injury as a child, and major physical injuries in her 20s caused her to have balance and vision problems. One occurrence caused her to lose three weeks of time; she was even labeled legally blind.

But her ailments didn’t stop her from pursuing her dream.

“Since I was a kid, I always wanted to dance,” she said, “and when I was about to turn 40, I decided to realize some of my dreams.”

Visual training, visual programs, surgery and a vestibular therapist to help with balance have aided her recovery. Even dancing, she said, is like advanced therapy.

Her health is better now than it was in her 20s and 30s, which helps her compete against dancers 10 to 15 years younger.

She began consulting with a ballroom instructor in Seattle in 1999. Her first requirement was to own a ball gown.

She bought one, never felt more beautiful, and was hooked.

She started training with a professional couple on the West Coast. She entered her first United Country Western Dance Council competition in May 2000, and by October 2000 she had won her first novice competition in San Diego.

Partners are rare to come by – there are fewer male dancers than females. Bruseth must travel in order to practice and receive instruction.

Otherwise, she practices alone doing yoga, weightlifting, aerobic exercise, and dance drills and routines. She has partners in California and Canada.

Since beginning, she has qualified to compete in world dance championships, which are a division of UCWDC. She also has won awards, including first place overall professional-amateur classic advanced female diamond in a competition in Calella, Spain.

She has traveled to England to study other competitions, and she will travel to Las Vegas and Stockholm, Sweden, to compete in the advanced category.

Currently she is dancing with a five-time world champion in the professional category of country dancing and is at the top of the amateur category.

Bruseth calls dancing a moving sport.

“I love the movement,” she said, “and the swooshing across the floor almost effortlessly.”

Besides dancing, and her continuing practicing and physical conditioning, she works as a holistic physical therapist. A graduate of the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science in physical therapy, she has owned her practice since 1990 in the Spokane Valley.

Trained like an old-fashioned osteopathic physician, she uses a hands-on technique. Through her training, she has learned better ways to heal herself and others.

“Dancing – whatever type it may be – is just another way to train the body to improve,” she said.

What once seemed like a ridiculous dream of a fanciful child has become a reality, and an inspiring one at that.