Andrew Vaca never thought dislocating his leg at age 18 would create so many problems for his future in dance.
Vaca had his first hip replacement in 2008 and it took him three months to recover.
In July, the pain came suddenly again. Vaca was blindsided when the doctor told him he needed another hip replacement.
But 10 weeks after his second surgery, Vaca, interim chair of Cal State Long Beach’s department of dance, was back on the dance floor.
“The first surgery, I had to spend three nights in the hospital … with this [recent] surgery, they gave me less anesthesia,” Vaca said. “So when I went to my room, they literally had me walking three hours after my surgery.”
In addition to dancing again, Vaca, who has been teaching dance at CSULB since 1999, is also choreographing a piece for the faculty dance concert. He teaches modern dance technique, creative dance for children, a senior seminar class and plans to teach jazz technique next fall.
Vaca is professionally trained in jazz, ballet and modern dance.
He has been dancing for nearly 30 years, and has worked in the sports entertainment industry for about 25 years. This includes being the artistic director for the San Diego Charger’s official dance team for two years.
But Vaca only took his first dance class while attending Cal State Sacramento.
“I’ve gotten a late start, but I’ve made up for it by dancing in the school company, and that led to the artistic director’s professional company [in Sacramento],” Vaca said. “And that’s when I knew that that’s the path I wanted to take.”
Vaca said he started his training in jazz dance, and later studied ballet and modern dance. He received a master’s of fine arts in dance at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“[Jazz and modern dance] kind of fulfill a different part of my creative drive,” he said. “I have always been happiest in my career when I’m doing a little bit of both. Otherwise, I feel lopsided.”
Vaca said he encourages dancers to be diligent when recovering from an injury and said they can always return to a place where they can still be a dancer.
“It may not be exactly the same, but you can still do it,” Vaca said. “I’m going to still be dancing. I’m still going to be teaching, and that’s what I was hoping for.”
^ posted by Julie Chung
Mr. Vaca had 2 hip surgeries on DIFFERENT hips!! The problems that he experienced with his hip at 18 years old was not the hip that he recently got replaced. The lead makes it sound like he had 2 hip replacements on the same hip.