Her baby blue Air Jordans were already stained red. The yellow Chevy Sonic she affectionately referred to as ‘Sunny,’ was smashed up on the side of the road. And a fence once standing on Wheeler Road was now crumpled and scattered about, including one post pushing its way completely through Leela Beaty’s left shoulder.
At that moment, Beaty summoned all her strength just to survive. After an emergency life-saving surgery, she just wanted to know if she could dance again.
Beaty has been on a road to recovery ever since the life-altering wreck last year, one that left the rising Warren County High School senior with a shattered collarbone, smashed ribs, a broken shoulder blade, severe cuts to her face and no use of her left arm.
The shoulder blade and ribs healed, the collarbone is now metal and surgery helped repair the beauty queen’s face, while three major surgeries have been geared toward helping resolve the paralysis of her left arm due to the massive injury to the brachial plexus.
Getting back to where she was before the accident required hundreds of small baby steps during rehab, but now Beaty is dancing through it all.
“My first two questions were, ‘When can I go back to school?’ because I love school. My second question was, ‘Will Miss Paula let me dance?’” recalled Beaty about coming out of her first surgery. “The accident was something awful and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, but if I had a time machine and could go back and change it, I don’t think that I would. It has made me a better person. My mindset is to prove everyone wrong.”
While the recovery was grueling and it took months before Beaty could even get back in public for extended periods of time, she found the doubters were quickly overshadowed by a community – particularly her family and her dance team – that wanted to see her succeed.
At times during her initial hospital stay, Beaty felt her desire to dance start to fade, but it was quickly renewed the first time she was able to get back to Paula’s Dance Academy and see her team.
“I remember walking into the studio and all of the sudden everybody had their hands up in wraps and looked just like me. They were dancing with one arm and it made me feel like dancing would always be there. I will always be dancing,” said Beaty.
Shortly after Beaty’s return, the team began work on a routine incorporating their returning teammate. Before the first move was put in place, the whole group was asked to lay down, close their eyes and soak in the song that would become the title of the performance as well – "Rise Up," by Andra Day.
“I remember when we got the choreography and we didn’t know the music. Leela held my hand and we just cried the entire time,” said senior Katherine Hyder, a lifelong friend who often is mistaken as Leela’s twin sister. “That song is literally her. The progress she has made in seven months is amazing – she’s the strongest human I’ve ever met in my life.
“Leela has always been my person. She’s my other half.”
Paula Barnes, the leader of the dance studio that Leela has attended for years, also recalled how those first days of work on "Rise Up" affected Beaty and her teammates.
“The first two or three practices, we all wrapped our arms up. It taught them what Leela was having to go through. We cried every time we did it for so long because it’s so emotional,” said Barnes.
Over months of hard work, the routine was perfected and ready for its public debut. The setting couldn’t have been better for Beaty as it was an unofficial return to the school she was longing to be at since the moment she woke up from surgery.
“The first time we ever performed, it was at the high school and it was the big rivalry game against Coffee County. It was crazy – everybody was standing up, everybody was cheering me on. People I had never talked to were cheering for me. It was a great moment,” said Beaty.
It also served as a huge surprise to Beaty’s mom, Candace Seals. The woman who Beaty credits as her rock throughout everything and the person who got her into dancing at a young age had no idea they were going to perform the routine.
“I’m pretty sure my mom put in me in dance because she wanted to see me in a cute tutu. That night, she didn’t know we were doing it. I was able to present her a rose at the very end,” said Beaty.
“Leela wanted to do it for her,” said Hyder, who also remembered the tears everybody shed during the routine and at the conclusion.
It became a hit routine for Paula’s Dance Academy, which went all the way to Nationals in July and claimed a championship at the Believe National Talent competition. During their run to a national title, "Rise Up," began to hold a new message for Beaty and her teammates.
“When we first got it, it was always sad. It had that sentimental touch where we were remembering the wreck. It was hanging over us. But the last time we did it, I told her, ‘It finally feels like a happy feeling because I know you’re not going to leave.’ God has her for a reason. For what she’s been through, she’s meant to do something extraordinary,” said Hyder.
Beaty felt the same release about the final routine. “When we dance it now, it’s all about hope. I’ve had surgeries now to hopefully get some more motion back, but everything is hope now. I am OK,” said Beaty. “At the beginning, we were all wondering if it was going to work out, but now everybody says, ‘She’s fine. She’s Leela.’”
Along with getting back to being Leela, she’s added a few more titles. She’s a national champion dancer, a multi-time pageant winner – with the latest win coming in the Miss Middle Tennessee pageant - and will be back to serve as a captain on next year’s dance team.
It wasn’t an easy road, but Beaty has found a new mantra to lead her back to a path of good health – both mentally and physically – and happiness.
“My pageant platform is mental health awareness and I go and talk to groups of kids to tell them their feelings are valid. When I was walking to the Sisters Act club from Morrison, a mom came up to me, hugged me and told me, ‘You have to have a mess to have a message and you have to a have a test to have a testimony,’” said Beaty. “It’s been a ‘Wow’ moment. It’s true – you have to have a test to have your real story. Everybody has their difficulties.”
Beaty’s real story is far from being finished, but she has emerged from the depths of despair to be a beacon of hope. She’ll gladly dance through the rest of it with grace and hope, even if sometimes it’ll be while wearing stained Air Jordans.
