Show must go on for Calgary dancer despite terminal cancer diagnosis

CALGARY – Rochelle Gartner was driving on Crowchild Trail last April on her way to meet her sisters for Good Friday services. She didn’t make it.

Feeling dizzy and confused, her vision blurred. The last thing she remembered was swerving up the ramp on Flanders Road as two people on bicycles rode down toward her. Her next memory was waking up in hospital. She was examined, released and advised to follow up with her doctor.

“I always wonder who those people were, it was a miracle,” says Gartner, 44. Those cyclists, she figures, likely saved her life by calling for help.

On followup appointments, Gartner was told she had glioblastoma, an aggressive, incurable brain cancer; the episode in the car was caused by a seizure from the tumour. She was scheduled for emergency surgery and rounds of chemotherapy.

In the seven months since that dreadful diagnosis, Gartner has good and bad days coping with her illness and treatments. What’s getting her through, she says, is being honest about the disease and finding support from her family, husband and the dance community, which has been a part of her life since she was three years old.

Gartner owns the Dance With France school, which she operates with the help of her sister Micheline Rae. During her career, she’s danced in Japan, on board cruise ships and put on countless shows, teaching dance to thousands of Calgary children.

The illness has motivated her to give back to fellow dancers who have brought her happiness throughout her life.

“At first I was ashamed and embarrassed (of the illness).

I hid it. I’m supposed to be a healthy dancer; we’ve never had illness in our family,” said Gartner.

Gartner is also the artistic director of Artists Elite International, a professional choreography and performance dance company. Sixteen years ago, she bought the 35-year old Dance With France school from another one of her sisters, and school founder, France Gartner.

As Gartner began to share the story of her illness with people over the summer, she was inspired to produce a sequel to a dance show she put on in February 2019, called Dance of Thrones.

The irony is not lost on Gartner that the show raised money for cancer long before she discovered her own illness.

Dance of Thrones 2 (Cure GBM), a sequel, debuts Feb. 29.