Martha Graham, famed modern dancer and choreographer, once summed up her career by saying that "dance is the hidden language of the soul."
Turner Norman would probably tend to agree.
Norman, born and raised in Humboldt, graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in June, the most prestigious of its kind in the nation, the "Juilliard of Canada."
And it all started at Jacquie's Dance Academy in Humboldt.
Training there since the age of six, Norman, now 24, took everything from hip hop to jazz, tap, ballet and musical theatre.
By the time he was 16 years old, he was teaching dance himself, the student becoming the master.
But Norman will never stop learning.
"Is there ever a moment where a dancer has learned everything there is to know about their genre? Where they've reached the pinnacle and are certified experts?" I ask him.
"Absolutely not. The day I stop taking dance lessons is the day I die," he answers emphatically.
After graduating from Humboldt Collegiate Institute, Norman trained at Saskatoon's Sitter School of Dance for two years.
But he wanted more.
The booming metropolis and famed arts culture of Toronto were beckoning him and after flying to the city for an eight-hour audition at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, numerous rounds of cuts and an interview, Norman learned he was accepted in the summer of 2009.
So it was bye-bye to the vast plains of Humboldt and hello to The Big Smoke.
Norman was enrolled in the professional training program (PTP), a three-year endeavor with classes Monday to Friday, starting bright and early and ending in the evening. Students go through rigorous courses, learning everything from the Graham technique, to ballet and contemporary dance and repertoire, with shows put on twice a year by the school and student-run smaller shows produced in between.
And each year, the workload was more intense with longer hours and more responsibility; by second year, the students are producing their own shows and learning all the ins and outs of dance productions behind the scenes.
Norman prefers to be the dancer, not the director.
"I didn't really like the production side of it," he laughs.
It was the opening night of the school's winter show, Impulse, in December 2010 when all the effort, the long days and sleepless nights, the training, the sweat, the muscle aches and panting, the jumps and twists and turns, came to a screeching halt.
During rehearsals before the show, Norman was practising a move. It was a routine jump that he had done many times before. But this time, it was different.
"I landed funny. And right away, I knew something wasn't right. It was just agony," Norman says.
He had ripped the tendons in his knee, his ACL gone to shreds.
"It was just brutal," he says. "I somehow did the first act but just barely. My co-stars in the production had to tell me there's no way I was going back out there."
It was a crushing blow, for more reasons than just the physical agony.
"My dad had flown out to see me that night," Norman says.
Thanks to a cancellation list, Norman was able to get an MRI within a few days, confirming his suspicions: his knee was a mangled mess.
His sports therapist recommended he do eight to nine months of intense rehabilitation through hitting the gym every day and physiotherapy several times a week.
Well, that or surgery.
But Norman figured his knee wasn't so bad that it'd require an operation and the waiting list associated with that option.
So he chose rehabilitation and decided to forgo the rest of his second year at the school, planning to re-start that year once his rehab was completed and his knee was back to normal.
After three months on ice packs and crutches, he was noticing an improvement in his knee and by September 2011, he was able to redo his second year.
And conquered his third, graduating this past June.
He's currently doing what he's always done in the summer, going to dance workshops, working at restaurants to scrape by and now performing with Toronto's TDC Entertainment, a touring dance company.
Norman's also gearing up for next summer, when he'll perform in a stage production of MADInception, choreographed by Meredith Anderson.
But he's hoping that despite that, he'll be able to squeeze in something else he wants to do.
"I'd like to start a summer dance intensive workshop in Saskatoon for a couple of weeks," Norman says, noting that although his homestead right now is in Toronto, he'd like to make it back to Saskatchewan one day.
"Ideally, I'd want to have my own dance company, where I'm the choreographer and principal dancer," he says.
"And yeah, I'd want it based in Saskatoon," he adds, explaining that he doesn't think anything like that really exists in that city right now.
So despite Norman having a career at the moment reminiscent of '80s TV show Fame, he still holds his Prairie connections near and dear.
"My old dance teacher Jacquie [Huck] flew out to see me in our final production," he says.
"That was awesome."
