Photo by Jeff Baughan Tina White-Huddleston, left, and Kristin Lambert perform during their duet performance to Alessia Cara’s song “Scars to Your Beautiful.”

Tina’s Dance Studio One is situated along Rayon Drive in south Parkersburg. It’s a Wednesday evening and 29-year-old Kristin Lambert comes through the door. Tonight, she just wants to dance. There are no dreams to be on a Broadway stage but she does want to compete eventually. One more thing, Lambert comes through the door on metal crutches which support her during her dance lessons. She doesn’t have two feet to dance on.

Her right leg ends shortly above the knee, lost in a late night accident on June 8, 2014, the leg lost when it was crushed between cars on West Virginia 14 near Mineral Wells.

“But you don’t need both feet to dance,” Lambert said with an ever-present smile. “You dance with your heart.”

Tina White-Huddleston is the owner of the studio where Lambert is learning to dance. Two nights a week, rehearsal is shorts, t shirt and crutches. White-Huddleston is there. Sometimes the class is a one-on-one. Sometimes Lambert goes to the YMCA to practice other than in-class “because they have mirrored walls and I can see myself.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Kristin Lambert, left, and Tina White-Huddleston talk about dance positioning on the stage before they perform.

White-Huddleston said Lambert approached her “in late January, early February and asked if I would teach her to dance. She said everywhere she looked, there was my name. So she called.”

She has had students with spina bifida, Down Syndrome, autism and hearing impairment.

“Everybody deserves a chance,” she said and Lambert followed immediately with “everyone is a star.”

Lambert is practicing with lyrical ballet, jazz, hip-hop and tap but so far hasn’t used a tap shoe yet for fear of slipping.

“So she wears jazz shoes, which is really like a sneaker,” said White-Huddleston.

Photo by Jeff Baughan Balancing herself on her crutches, Kristin Lambert bows as part of a dance move during a performance.

Lambert received a pair of jazz shoes from a Connecticut dance studio after her story was published on Tina’s Dance Studio One Facebook page.

“She really is doing quite well,” said White-Huddleston. “And considering I’ve haven’t had an amputee student before, this is a learning curve for me as well. We’re still learning what she can do and cant’ do.”

“I’ve found I needed an outlet to express myself after the accident,” Lambert said. “I really like ballet. It’s such a beautiful form of dance.”

She spoke a little about the accident which led to the loss of a portion of her right leg.

“My car broke down,” she said. “It was between 9-10 p.m. and I had my hazards on. The other car pinned my leg against my car when it struck. A man who said he usually didn’t drive that way stopped to help. He used the pants belt of the woman from the other car as a tourniquet. It probably saved my life.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Kristin Lambert smiles after receiving bouquets of roses following the conclusion of the spring recital at Parkersburg South High School’s auditorium.

Lambert said she was training for a road race at the time of the accident.

“I was really focused on training,” she said. “I had no clue as to how bad I was hurt. I hadn’t really processed everything. I told them to put a band aid on it so I could train the next day. They said ‘no.'”

Lambert received five units of blood throughout the ordeal.

Lambert recently participated in her first recital. She danced two days on the Parkersburg South High School auditorium stage with others. A song she danced to was Alessia Cara’s song “Scars to Your Beautiful.”

“I thought it was fitting,” she said, “considering everything I have been through. I tied it into the studio. Everyone has scars and we can all dance. No matter what those scars are from, we can dance.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Kristin Lambert, left, and Tina White-Huddleston rehearse their dance at Tina’s Dance One Studio before the recital.

Lambert said there is a rule at Tina’s Dance Studio One: “There is no getting frustrated because there are no ‘I can’ts’ in the studio,” she said. “Giving up is not allowed.”

Balance has been the hardest thing for her to learn, Lambert said.

“There are times where I have my arms above my head,” she said. “I try to balance my crutch in my ribs so I can put my arms above my head. I’ve learned to spin. I can do an arabasque with my crutches and my left leg is the air.”

An arabasque is according to dictionary.com, “a pose in ballet in which the dancer stands on one leg with one arm extended in front and the other leg and arm extended behind.”

The recital was Disney themed “Let the Magic Begin.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan Kristin Lambert receives a hug before the start of her first performance in a recital.

“I want to go to Disney’s ‘Contest of Champions’ in March,” she said. “There’s no age limit.”

She smiles at the thought and then says “I’m one step closer to being my childhood idol. That’s Aerial. Little Mermaid,” she said. “We both have red hair. She is a mermaid and has one tail. I have one leg.” She pauses, smiles and continues again, “Hey, you have to try to keep a sense of humor about all of this.”

She danced with her metal crutches in a red sequined dress with black leggings.

“I was nervous,” she said about the recital and being on stage before an audience. “But it wasn’t as bad as it could have been because my uncle Lloyd Talkington was in the audience. He’s been my biggest supporter and role model my entire life but especially since the accident.”

Talkington met Lambert at the stage after the performance with a bouquet of flowers. She beamed with a smile and a handful of roses. She had a seat at the edge of the stage and watched as senior members at Tina’s Dance said their goodbyes.

Afterward, she said, “Life has been rough at times but it was just another challenge to overcome and I have.”

Photo by Jeff Baughan