Belly Dancing to Recover From Cancer Treatment
After her mastectomy, Jennifer LaFleur found herself lying on the hardwood floor in her kitchen. The firm surface seemed to loosen up her tense back muscles, which were sore from the maddening stillness her recovery required.
LaFleur was first diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2011. Six rounds of chemotherapy, a lumpectomy, a second surgery, and six weeks of radiation drove the cancer into remission—only for it to return in September 2014. This time, she underwent the mastectomy and reconstruction, and after one final surgery, she was cancer-free. But the invasive treatments left her feeling that her body no longer quite belonged to her. “I realized recovering from this trauma was going to be a complicated process,” she says.
On the floor, LaFleur’s mind drifted to, of all things, belly, a belly-dance troupe in Charlottesville, where she’s working toward a Ph.D. in ancient Greek and Latin historiography at the University of Virginia. The slew of medical treatments had driven LaFleur into a sedentary life, disconnected from the activities she once enjoyed. She wondered, could returning to belly dance help her find a way back to the life she had known before cancer?
