“i, Butterfly” Follows a Dancer’s Search for Her Identity

“Butterflies go through a metamorphosis in their life, and I feel like I definitely have gone through one in mine,” British dancer Sharifa Butterfly, formerly Sharifa Tonkmor, says in the film “i, Butterfly.” The film follows her on a journey searching for her identity, and ultimately, finding a family in the Rain Crew, a group […]

When Injury Leads to an Identity Crisis

I’d been a professional dancer for five years when I realized the pain I’d been feeling in my hip and down my sciatic nerve was not going away. I had been treating it for two years as we dancers do—with regular visits to my masseuse, physical therapy, baths, ice and lots of Aleve—but I never […]