Amy Purdy is dancing again!
The Paralympic snowboarder and motivational speaker, 43, reunited with her former Dancing with the Stars partner Derek Hough at his Symphony of Dance tour stop in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Saturday evening.
Picking up exactly where they left off nearly a decade ago, the DWTS finalists, who were runner-ups on season 18 of the ABC reality show, danced together in a moment that carried a lot of significance for Purdy.
Alongside a video of the duo dancing in the empty theater, Purdy wrote, “After injuring my leg 4 years ago and enduring 10+ surgeries, I had no idea if I would ever walk comfortable again, let alone dance again and tonight not only did I walk into the theater but I danced again with my friend & DWTS partner @derekhough.”
“Life is such a journey,” she continued. “Or as Derek says ‘life is a symphony!’ Let this be a reminder that whatever you are going through, keep going!”
On her Instagram Story, Purdy shared more clips of the reunited DWTS partners twirling and dipping, alongside which she wrote, “Wow it’s been about 10 years since I’ve done that,” and “Do we still have it??”
Hough’s wife, Hayley Erbert, and Purdy’s husband, Daniel Gale, both cheered the pair on as they danced.
“This is the first time I’ve danced since my leg injury,” Purdy added on her Instagram Story. “It made me cry. Whatever you are going through keep going.”
Hough, 38, also gave Purdy a sweet shoutout during his show, and the Paralympic athlete reciprocated the favor, praising her former partner’s tour and calling him “talented, creative and passionate.”
Back in 2021, Purdy — whose legs were amputated ten inches below the knee after she contracted bacterial meningitis at age 19 — opened up about her battle to walk again. At that time, the battle had already spanned seven surgeries and two years.
“Twenty years ago when I lost my legs and lost my kidneys and almost lost my life, I never said ‘Why me?’ Two years ago — that was the first time,” she said.
In February 2019, Purdy felt a sharp pain in her left calf. “I was healthy, strong, snowboarding, and traveling the world as a motivational speaker,” she said. “I was at the top of my game, and then the rug got pulled out from under me.”
After realizing that it was her left leg, not her left prosthesis that was causing her pain, she headed straight to the emergency room. There, doctors discovered a massive blood clot from the hip down through the arteries of her left leg and immediately operated.
At the time, Purdy was not sure when she would be able to get back on her prosthetic leg — or how soon she would be walking again.
“I’ve realized I can inspire even more by being vulnerable and sharing my journey along the way,” she said. “But you can’t just be focused on the outcome. I’m not completely on the other side of it but I also know that resiliency isn’t just standing on the mountain top to say, ‘Yes I did it’ because then you look at the horizon and you’ve got even more mountains to climb.”
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