Vancouver ballet community rallies around injured Argentinian ballerina

"She's currently not fully conscious, her eyes are not open and she's not speaking, but she is able to communicate by nodding her head yes or no or by grabbing our hands," Katrina Bois tells As It Happens guest host Matt Galloway.

Bois is Munaretto's rehearsal director at the Pacific Dance Arts dance academy.

Munaretto was rollerblading when the accident happened. She picked up speed on a steep incline and rolled through a stop sign, colliding with a van that had the right of way. In addition to traumatic head injuries, the collision left Munaretto with a shattered jaw, broken wrist and pelvis. Her lungs were leaking fluid and she needed surgery to stabilize the ligaments in her neck.

"It was an extremely high impact, she actually went through the driver's side window completely," Bois explains.

Originally from Argentina, Munaretto moved with her family to Brazil after she was offered a scholarship to study with a theatre school. It was during an international dance festival that Li Yaming, the artistic director at Pacific Dance Arts, spotted Munaretto's potential.

"He saw Lucila, both in performances and in class, and liked her right away," Bois recalls. "He invited her to come to Canada on a full scholarship because she comes from a lower income family."

Munaretto jumped at the opportunity. Bois explains that like Munaretto, there are many dancers without the financial means to pursue a career.

"It's their dream to come to a country such as Canada to train because they have the opportunity to not only have a better life but also to follow their dream and their passion."

Bois insists that Munaretto is one of a kind.

"I work with her every day," she explains. "She's beautiful, Lucila is the kind of dancer that just connects with the audience immediately. She's technically the same as many of the dancers that are out there but she has just that little extra something that everyone looks for in a dancer that can't really be trained...that you just have naturally."

The dance community has rallied to support Munaretto and the academy has created a GoFundMe page. 

"They have responded with such overwhelming passion," Bois explains. "she is going to need extensive rehabilitation if she ever wants to dance again and many of the costs associated with that are not covered by her medical insurance so we want to try to ensure that she can dance again."

The recovery and rehabilitation is daunting but there are small signs of progress that give Bois hope.

"When she's hearing the music from the ballet and also from some messages of love from her fellow dancers, she has an immediate and extreme response. Her heart rate increases and her breathing speeds up to the point where it's almost hitched and it's like she starts to cry."

When asked whether she thinks Munaretto will dance again, Bois insists, "I will do everything in my power as well as all her other teachers to get her there if that's what she wants to do but we also know realistically she has a very long road ahead of her."

She adds, "if anyone can make it back to dancing, Lucila can."     

Here's a short clip of Munaretto in a warm-up class alongside her fellow dancers at Coastal City Ballet in Vancouver.