22-Year-Old With Midline Brain Malformation Becomes Award-Winning Ballroom Dancer

    CHICAGO, IL, September 29, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Sabrina Schoenberg is 22 years old and a ballroom dancer. She is also missing a significant part of her brain. Sabrina was born with only part of a cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls movement, balance, coordination, vision, and many other important functions we need to live and thrive. This very rare neurological disability, called Rhombencephalosynapsis (RES), should prevent Sabrina from doing what she loves – ballroom dancing – but she refuses to let it stop her. Sabrina is determined to become a professional ballroom dancer despite having low vision, poor balance and coordination, numbness in her hands and feet, severe anxiety, and a long list of other medical issues. She dances at least two hours or more five days a week and practices every day on her own. She has even been coached by and danced with Dancing with the Stars professionals including Tony Dovolani, Corky Ballas, Jesse DeSoto, and Jonathan Roberts.

Sabrina's ballroom dance journey began when she was 8 years old and would go with her mother to the dance studio after her many doctor and therapy appointments, which were often twice a day, seven days a week. By the time she was a teenager, she knew she had to ballroom dance. Ballroom dance lessons helped her with balance, strength, and coordination and gave her a community that made her feel like a part of something – a feeling she had not known often in her life.

With support from her dance teachers and family, Sabrina has become a national ballroom dance champion, traveling throughout the United States competing against some of the best amateur dancers in the country. She has learned to travel on her own, navigate large airports and hotels, and even graduated from Columbia College of Chicago with a degree in acting. Even though her eyes don't work well and walking in a straight line is almost impossible, Sabrina has refused to let her disability hold her back. The minute she gets onto the ballroom floor and the music starts she is at peace with herself and the world around her.

Sabrina's dream is to dance professionally. Watching her idol Derek Hough dance with Amy Purdy on season 18 of Dancing with the Stars showed Sabrina that anything is possible if you work hard and don't give up. She is determined not to let her disability limit her ability to achieve her goals and dreams.

Sabrina recently started a non-profit foundation to raise awareness about RES, a rare and silent disability that even most doctors don't understand. Sabrina also wants to use the funds raised from her foundation to help other children with RES afford the therapies and activities that have helped her do what she loves.

Sabrina's grand championship winning dance can be viewed on YouTube.

About the Sabrina Schoenberg RES Foundation

For more information about Sabrina and the Sabrina Schoenberg RES Foundation please contact Bonnie Schoenberg, Vice President and Secretary, at (847) 612-1780 or [email protected]. Videos, interviews, and additional photos are available upon request.

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