Alessia’s story: a champion who dances

Alessia has dancing in her heart. For years she has been treated with a back brace and exercises due to a challenging scoliotic curve and her path has always been a struggling uphill ride, during which she never lost sight of her passion, dancing! 
She never stopped dancing, even wearing her corset and never gave up until recently she won the title of 5th Italian champion in the category of Modern/Contemporary dance at the 2022 Italian championships. Here are the words she wanted to share.
“My name is Alessia Mancini, and I am a dancer. At the age of 6, I was diagnosed with very important scoliosis: my curve was greater than 40 °. At the age of 11, I came to Isico, where I made my first visit with Dr Sabrina Donzelli, who followed me for the duration of my therapeutic path. After a few months, I was wearing the first corset of a long series. For two long years, it accompanied me for 23 hours a day; I wore it when sleeping, going to school and playing sports. The only hour of freedom available was dedicated to dancing.
Over the years, the wearing hours have decreased to 18 in the last six months of therapy: I was now 18 years old.
Therapy has accompanied me through the most complicated and changing years of my life, forcing me to sacrifice aspects of adolescence that were taken for granted by my peers.
All this without ever compromising the one thing I already understood, when I was only 11 years old, was essential for me: dancing. Although I could have felt inferior to my pathological condition, I always thought, on the contrary, that I had something more and that I was somehow special.
I had to work on many technical things subjectively compared to my fellow dancers since my body’s levers and balances are shifted compared to an “aligned” person! But now I thank the little girl that was me, who has always believed in this dream because thanks to her that I am today’s Alexia; she pushed me to get to where I am right now.
Finally, I would like to thank my doctor again, Sabrina Donzelli: she was and will be my doctor of life!”