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Dancing frees former teacher from pains
Photo
Joe Sepesy and his instructor, Lynda McPhail, demonstrate their ballroom dancing moves during dance lessons at the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center in downtown Youngstown. Dance has helped Sepesy regain the mobility he lost when he was injured in the Vietnam War.
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
Joseph Sepesy remembers the first day he showed up for ballroom dancing lessons. His spirit was willing but his body was another story.
The Poland resident wore a leg brace and had a noticeable limp when he met dance instructor Lynda McPhail at her studio.
It was 2009, and the newly retired schoolteacher — then 59 — was looking for a way to improve his life and heal the physical and emotional wounds he suffered in the Vietnam War.
Sepesy was an Army helicopter pilot whose craft was shot down in 1970 while on a mission. He had graduated from The Rayen School in Youngstown just two years prior.
Sepesy has dealt with back and neck pain, and problems with balance, since his stint in the war.
He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, an anxiety condition caused by the emotional trauma of war. It never goes away.
Teaching him to dance was not going to be easy, if it could be done at all.
“I had never worked with someone who had these physical issues,” said McPhail. “He had a leg brace and an orthopedic shoe. He stumbled the first time I met him as he walked toward me. I went to help him, but he said, ‘Wait, I will get there.’ He asked me if I could teach him to dance. I said give me two lessons and I will see.”
What followed was an immense challenge for both student and teacher, but one that would yield an amazing payoff for both.
McPhail took a class to study the movement of bones and muscles to help her work with her new student.
As for Sepesy, he threw himself into ballroom dancing, and day by day, his mental and physical limitations began to fade.
Today, he dances effortlessly and skillfully, performing up to six times per week at events throughout the region.
He recently published a book that encapsulates his thoughts about dance, in the form of poems and short stories. On Thursday, he and McPhail will lead a lecture at the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center downtown on the history of ballroom dancing.
His near-miraculous turnabout has been rewarding and touching.
“It has been the best work of my career,” said McPhail. “There has been no one like Joe.”
Sepesy took up ballroom dancing on the advice of a counselor at the Veterans Affairs in Youngstown. The counselor urged him to come up with three ways to improve his life. Sepesy decided he would finish writing his memoirs, resume playing the guitar, and take up ballroom dancing.
“A friend recommended I talk to Lynda McPhail, so I booked a lesson with her,” he said. “Ten minutes in, I fell in love with dancing and there has been no looking back. I was hooked. Dancing has turned my life around. I am having the time of my life.”
McPhail tailored her instruction to Sepesy’s limitations and never gave up on him.
“I had him do T’ai Chi to improve balance,” she recalled.
The dance lessons also continued.
“After about a year, Joe came to a lesson very excited,” said McPhail. “He was now able to move his toes. Dance gave him that. He was becoming less disabled. At one point not so long ago, the VA wanted to give him a more restrictive leg brace. Now he wears no leg brace.”
To Sepesy, learning to dance was never so far-fetched because he has always had music in him.
“I started playing guitar at age 5,” he said. “I had a band at age 12. I was always in a band, always watching people dance. I always felt the music.”
In 2009, he retired from his job as a teacher in Youngstown City Schools. Up until that time, he also had been in intensive group therapy at the VA in Youngstown to help him with the lingering mental effects of combat.
He does not like to talk about the horrors he witnessed in Vietnam when he was just 20, except as necessary to summarize his life.
“I was shot down on April 18, 1970,” he recalled. He was not taken prisoner.
“I have since had six operations, and had titanium bolts and pins put in my body. I have balance problems, and my left foot is ‘floppy.’ I can’t stand on my toes.
“Lynda looked at me as a challenge. She adjusted my lesson to suit my broken-down body. I practiced at home. Now I no longer have a leg brace and my limp has diminished. I do not limp at all when I’m dancing. When people see me dance, they have no idea of my problems.”
He also lost 30 pounds in the first year alone.
To go with his love of dance, Sepesy — a 1977 graduate of Youngstown State University — has also always been something of a writer. The 2003 inductee into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame has penned a 700-page memoir of his time in Vietnam, which he titled “Once We Flew.” It has not yet been published.
In November, he self-published “Word Dances,” his collection of thoughts on dancing (available at lulu.com).
“My thoughts turned into verses and short stories,” he said, explaining the impetus for the book. “I am so excited about it, I have already written volumes 2, 3 and 4. A whole new world has opened up to me. I have met so many fabulous people. They have inspired me to write about them.”
Sepesy sent a copy of his book to Len Goodman, a judge on “Dancing With the Stars,” and received a very sincere hand-written response from him, which he proudly displays.
His appreciation for McPhail and respect for her ability as a teacher also are obvious.
“Some instructors teach you how to dance,” he said. “Lynda teaches you how to be a dancer. There is a huge difference. I wrote about that in a poem in my book.”