Emily Credland was eight when she suffered a fractured skull and broken pelvis
Dancer Emily Credland, 22, of Hull has opened a dance school in the city(Image: Emily Credland)
A young woman from Hull who was lucky to survive a car accident as a child has gone on to achieve her dream of opening her own dance school. Emily Credland was just eight-years-old when she suffered a fractured skull and had her pelvis broken in two places.
A split-second decision that saw her chase a bouncing ball into the road, and into the path of a car, led to Emily being rushed to hospital and having emergency surgery to remove a blood clot. Her parents were warned she may have suffered brain damage and their daughter was given a 50-50 chance of survival.
The budding dancer, who was then attending Northern Theatre Company five times a week to develop her talents, began to make a miraculous recovery but spent time in a wheelchair, longingly watching on as her contemporaries continued their dance lessons. Now Emily, 22, is contemplating launching wheelchair ballet lessons as part of the offering at her new dance and fitness school in the city.
Emily said: “I was a young dancer in my prime age of learning when the accident happened. My message to other people is, just because you have fallen doesn’t mean you can’t get back up and improve yourself.”
Though Emily is thrilled to now be qualified to teach other people to dance, and to have found the premises in which to provide the classes – and is still dancing herself “as much as possible” – life has not been without its challenges. She said: “I haven’t always been the happy and positive person I am now.
“Now, I have different sorts of pain and it just hurts sometimes. I re-broke my pelvis in 2018, falling off a science chair at school.
“Last year, unfortunately, the pain got to me and my mental health wasn’t great. I would have been just finishing my level six but because of my mental health and physical issues, I had to drop out and it really upset me.”
Emily, who was nominated for the Hull Daily Mail Pride of East Yorkshire Awards in 2015, in the Inspiring Youngster category, has since demonstrated the same grit and determination she showed back then, when she managed to return to the stage in a production of Bugsy Malone. She said: “I’ve just finished my level five, which was amazing, and I was going to go on to level six and a PGCE [a teaching qualification for graduates] but I’m doing something similar instead.
“I have my own company (she launched in April) and I’m just trying to get the word out more to people who want to learn dance. I want to have the kind of space where students who may have different health issues feel safe, comfortable and supported.”
Emily has launched Next Wave Stage Academy, on the third floor of Princes Quay, holding classes where people can “build skills” and “make friends”. Her timetable includes commercial, contemporary, jazz, musical theatre, lyrical and tap, as well as fitness.
She said she wanted to empower dancers of all abilities and ages to learn, grow and shine on or off the stage. “I want to make dance more accessible – I want to start wheelchair ballet if I can.
“It was something one of my students said about the nearest place for wheelchair ballet being London. Dance was something I wanted to do so much when I was in my wheelchair.”
Emily said: “My mum and dad, grandma and grandad have been my biggest supporters and are so pleased about me doing this.
“I live with my partner now and he was buzzing for me when my licence came.” Back in August 2012, at the time of Emily’s accident, her mum, Rebecca, told the Hull Daily Mail: “We are so lucky she is still here.
“There are times when she is asleep and I look at her and think, ‘What if’. ” She said at the time she could not thank hospital staff and the emergency services enough for saving her daughter’s life.
“How I didn’t collapse when I first saw her after surgery I don’t know. She looked so small in this adult bed and there were machines everywhere.
“She was hooked up to a ventilator and her head was wrapped in bandages. Everyone, from the paramedics and police to the neurosurgeon, doctors, nurses and play workers, was just amazing.
“It is through their care that she survived. They were just absolutely amazing and we can’t thank them enough.”
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