Ballerina FAT SHAMED By Dancer ft. @Jordan Matter and Lizzy Howell | Dhar Mann

excuse me can i get this in a size extra large um this leotard is for ballet dancers so i don't think you want it oh i know i'm a dancer i've been dancing since i was five and a half that's a good one oh you're serious you're a ballet dancer yeah why is there something wrong with that i've just never seen anyone do ballet before who's your never mind you know i don't actually think that we carry that size for this leo but i guess i'll just go check [Music] hey we better get going or you're gonna be late for tryouts sweetheart are you okay yeah fine just waiting on the size it's time to take your medicine oh here we are i'll pick you up in a few hours lizzy you gonna be okay aunt linda do you really think i can make it as a ballet dancer you know being my size and all what do i always tell you you can be anything you want to be in life as long as you work hard for it you're right thanks for the reminder i should be done in an hour so just come back then good luck excuse me do you have an idea when we'll start start what these are the tryouts for the nutcracker right yeah but extras don't start auditioning until next week oh i'm actually here for the main part you know for clara wait hold on let me get this straight you want to be clara hey everyone listen to this what's your name honey lizzy lizzy here wants to be clara i i don't understand what's so funny look you seem nice so i'm gonna help you out you need to be skinny if you want to dance ballet especially for a main role i suggest you lose some weight good morning everyone i assume everyone is here to try out for clara i'll be choosing by the end of the day any questions before we get started i've got one for those who don't get cast is clara can they still try out for another part like i don't know being a horse or something yes i suppose great so in other words lizzy here still has a shot [Laughter] i suggest you focus on yourself and not anyone else or you may be the one who ends up as the horse okay let's get started oh i almost forgot whoever gets chosen is clara is gonna get to photograph with my friend jordan matter what no way he photographs all the best dancers i can't believe it that'd be amazing i wouldn't get too excited she said clara gets to photograph not the horse [Music] six seven eight first and two second two fifth two three and four very nice okay this is for turnout starting in first passe hondu front plie lifting and rotating up and lower to the back pase tandy back plie lifting and rotating 90 degrees and lower all right let's see you all do it five six seven eight [Music] you're supposed to lengthen out 90 degrees like this i think i got it sure you do do you mind if i ask you a question what's up why'd you choose ballet well ever since i can remember i wanted to be a dancer i saw the nutcracker when i was a little girl and i dreamt of being clara the way this i meant was why not try something more for people your size like football or i don't know sumo wrestling all right how's it going over here good i mean this is all pretty basic stuff very nice form how's it going with you lizzy fine just a little tired yeah you know maybe we all need to take a break or maybe you need to lose 50 pounds then you wouldn't be so tired all right let's all take a ten minute break and then we're gonna transition into solos i'm ready now i don't need a break oh okay um are you sure great uh we can start with anything you'd like sounds good i'll do pirouettes [Music] wow very impressive nice thanks okay who would like to go next oh whoops sorry lucy would you like to go next no i don't think yeah you should go lizzy i mean you do want to be clara don't you yeah but great come on up are you okay uh she probably has a toe cramp oh those aren't fun just stretch it out and it'll go away hey lizzy we can start with any routine you'd like do the forte really okay yeah right i can't even do a forte there's no way lizzie can whenever you're ready lizzy got this [Music] oh no lizzy i knew that was gonna happen izzy are you okay i'm fine i just i just don't know how i felt i'll tell you how it's because plus-sized girls don't belong in ballet hey you don't talk to her like that i'm just saying maybe she should focus on losing weight first that was completely inappropriate lizzy where are you going this was a huge mistake i knew i shouldn't have come here [Music] i can't believe how you treated her you have no idea what she has been through you better shape up otherwise you're going to be disqualified entirely i don't care how good you are sorry for being honest okay who wants to go next lizzie lizzy listen to me i'm sorry you had to go through that i can't help being the size that i am it's not my fault i have to take oh honey you don't have to explain that to me i thought i could lose weight by dancing but even when i try that people still make fun of me i can't win sweetheart just because one ignorant girl makes some comments it doesn't mean you should give up on your dreams it's not just her it's the woman at the store it's strangers in how they look at me i get judged everywhere i go we can talk about that more when tryouts are over i don't want you to miss your chance to be clara what do you say get back in there and try again no i don't want to go back in there i just want to stay in my room forever lizzy rushes inside of the car after deciding she's not gonna dance anymore when lizzie and her aunt linda get home lizzy runs off to her room crying the aunt doesn't know what to do after thinking about it some more the aunt decides that she's not gonna keep quiet so she makes a video about what happened with lizzy [Music] so my 16 year old niece just came home crying from the dm dance academy why because a dancer told her she was too big to do ballet what makes this even more painful is just knowing everything poor lizzy has had to go through you see lizzy had a very tough childhood within a few months of being born her dad decided to walk out on her and her mom so she grew up without a father and her mom well it's not even easy for me to say but her mom she passed away from a car accident when lizzie was just five years old it was one of the hardest days of our lives so that's how lizzy came to live with me and then as if things couldn't get any worse one day at the hospital lizzy was getting a checkup and a doctor came in and told us that she had pseudotumor cerebri which means she has extra spinal fluid around her brain it gives her really bad headaches and it causes her to lose her vision and to top it off it requires her to take medication that makes her gain weight so you see the reason that lizzy is the size that she is she can't even help it i got her into dance to distract her from all the trauma that she'd been through and and as a way to help her exercise but now she feels like she can't even do that this poor girl she's already been through so much and getting made fun of today that was the last thing she needed so please [Music] for the love of god let's be kind to each other because you never know [Music] you never know what somebody's going through the aunt finishes recording her emotional video and decides to post it online she uploads it onto youtube not really knowing what was gonna happen before long the video ends up taking off it gets millions of views within just a short time aunt linda couldn't believe it she brings lizzy over to show her what happened sit down take a look oh my gosh that's so many views i hope this shows you there's so many people out there supporting you so you shouldn't give up on your dreams but tryouts for claire are already over i saw on instagram the mingo who bullied me ended up getting it okay well you know there's always next year and if you start practicing now there's no doubt you'll get it maybe you're right what are the comments saying oh i don't know i haven't read them don duncan said it's true she's way too big to dance don't pay attention to that one it's just one comment just read the next one katrina said being that size and walking into tryouts must have been so humiliating i would have died oh my gosh what is wrong with people jake 102 said i bet when she steps on a scale it says to be continued is this what you called me over here for to make me feel even worse about myself no no of course not i am so sorry lizzy i had no idea the comments were gonna be so mean don't pay any attention whatsoever okay um i'll be right back hi can i hi i'm jordan matter oh i know who you are you're lizzy's favorite photographer she talks about you all the time that's awesome please come in thank you so much so what are you doing here i saw the video that you posted online about lizzy and i know the instructor at the academy so i asked her how i could find you i hope you don't mind me stopping by like this not at all jordan oh my gosh i can't believe it's you lizzy it is so great to meet you listen i'm just so sorry for what you've been through it's okay thanks and i read some of the comments and gosh people can be just so mean i hope you don't listen to any of it you think for as long as i've been getting them i'd be used to it by now but they still hurt that's why i just decided to give up on dancing what no no you can't quit but i fell in front of everyone at tryouts it was so embarrassing look the greatest dancers in the world fall down that doesn't stop them from getting back up again you shouldn't let that stop you either professional dancers fall too yeah all the time so do you really think i can be a ballerina you know given look if there's one thing i know for sure it's that you can be anything you want to be in life as long as you work hard for it that's what i always say i agree 100 thanks guys i appreciate it so is that why you came here to remind me not to give up oh well yeah but not just that i also kind of hope you want to shoot with me what are you serious you want to photograph me it would be my honor i'd love to lizzy is so excited not believing she is about to photograph with her idol the next day jordan takes lizzie out to some iconic locations to photograph her after she takes one look at the photos she gets more inspired than ever to go after her dream again jordan even introduces lizzie to a new dance instructor the new teacher agrees to help lizzy practice her dance ballet moves even more and as time goes on lizzy becomes an even better dancer but more importantly she builds more confidence than she ever has had before lizzie is finally ready to go after her dream again [Music] incredible great job thanks so does that mean i get to be claire again this year well is there anyone who hasn't gone yet okay thank you all for coming out but like last year i'm going to choose wait lizzy what are you doing here i'm so sorry i'm late i was hoping to try out for clara if the decision hasn't been made already uh sorry but i already got the part uh let's not get ahead of ourselves lizzy if you want to try out you still can you can't be serious she showed up late that's not fair are you scared that lizzy's gonna be a better dancer than you are [Music] yeah right she wants to embarrass herself again so be it hey don't be nervous you got this what will you be performing for us today i'd like to do the forte so she can fall again like the last time this should be fun to watch stop whenever you're ready lizzy [Music] [Music] incredible great job amazing you did it lizzy congratulations lizzy it's obvious after that performance that you should be clara in this year's ballet what this is ridiculous so proud of you i love you i love you too hi can i wait are you the guy who takes all the pictures of those dancers yeah i am i absolutely love your work i see it all over instagram and youtube thank you have you seen my latest it's incredible wait why does that girl look so familiar lizzy hey you're that girl who bought the leotard from me a long time ago and now you're featured in an article wow i guess you really are a valley dancer yup now if you wouldn't mind getting us this in an extra large of course right away [Music] so i had a video go viral in january of me doing fortes and i posted it in november of last year just because i wanted to and i didn't think anything of it and then in january it went viral and i have about 20 million views on facebook i think when the video went viral all the followers kind of came at once so that's when a lot of the hate comments came they don't know me they don't know anything they just see a picture and they're judging me based off of one picture or one video you don't know like my story so i don't think it's right for people to judge off of one thing i was told to stop dancing maybe when i was 12 i'm now 16 i was told there wasn't going to be any parts for me in nutcracker if i didn't lose weight or go on point so that bothered me a lot because it was something that i wanted to do forever if i'm a good dancer i don't think my body type should affect my opportunities so i have pseudotumor cerebri which is an excess buildup of spinal fluid around my brain so i could go blind if it isn't under control dance is what i love and it's everything to me so i think that just keeps me going [Music] i've been bullied in dance since i was like six it still happens when i go to dance conventions because there's like 300 people in one room and they're all looking at me and so you know i don't hear it directly what they're saying but i can see like all that stuff i had one girl at a dance convention step deliberately step on my foot with a tap shoe and so i missed the rest of the day because it really bothered me that she did that but i went the next day and i did the audition and i got a scholarship so it's those things that like keep me going is the reassurance from other people my aunt is my biggest supporter i've been living with her since i was six um i moved in with her when my mom died in a car accident and that's when i started dance actually so she's always pushed me forward and made me go to things even if i was too scared to go to them which is a good thing because i would have missed out on a lot of things if i didn't listen to her because most dancers are skinny and i'm not so i think people can relate to me in that sort of way they see me as an inspiration because i've been told to quit dance multiple times and i haven't so i think people relate to that when they want to do something they don't want other people telling them not to do it and so that's happened to me a lot one time i was in the hospital and i had an audition for a scholarship the next day and i got in trouble because i stood up and i started trying to do my solo and i wasn't supposed to but i still did and i actually won a scholarship for being inspirational so if i'm having a good day or a bad day i can usually go to dance and it would cheer me up or make me more happy so it's like therapy i guess so if i didn't have it i don't know how i would be whatever you say on social media is going to be seen by somebody and it could hurt their feelings you know you can't just say something that you think is funny but it might affect somebody else's feelings i'm a very sensitive person so i take everything to heart there's a bunch of people that are like me that take it the same way it was never really my goal to become a role model but now that i am i'm kind of glad that i am because i'm helping other people face their issues that i've had to face as well so i had one lady she's an older woman and she messaged me on instagram and said she was a dancer when she was younger but she quit because of what other people had told her and she just started taking adult ballet classes again because of me so that was really good and made me happy so dancing more and dancing with people that are accepting of me and nice to me has made me grow more if you love what you do you shouldn't let people get in the way of that hey tarman fam i hope you loved this video i'm gonna let my friends jordan madder and lizzy tell you what it's about i'm really excited to share my story i've been through quite a lot of things so i'm hoping it inspires some people and it's my first acting gig so i'm really thankful for that i've never done this before so you did amazing though we'll start there i mean anybody that's watching this right now having just seen that video hearing it's your first time is i think their mind is growing this video is so beautiful because it really grabs lizzie's life story i've known her for three years and it does it in a way that inspires everybody just remember go after your dreams don't let anybody discourage you don't listen to the haters that that's really you know that's your story that's your story that's the story of almost every successful person i love that and speaking of pursuing dreams i heard that you're pursuing your dreams of moving to los angeles is that right yeah nice so if you guys want to help lizzy move to los angeles and pursue her dreams of acting and dancing and so many other things lizzy's actually started to go fund me you guys can find that link down in the description please please let's all work together to help lizzy achieve those dreams and i think you've actually got a video on your channel that talks about the whole journey she's been through yes lizzy's journey and moving to la and meeting dar for the first time all of it is in a video i just released and the link is in the description yep we'll put that down in the description too thank you guys so much for watching and please remember we're not just telling stories we are changing lives i'll see you guys in the next video you need to be skinny if you want to dance i am trying to get out to l.a and then dartmouth told me that you want to make a video about me can you share my gofundme and get me to my goal i'm just telling stories we're changing lives

Channel: Dhar Mann

Views: 13,037,970

Rating: 4.9132123 out of 5

Keywords: Dhar Mann, motivation, motivational video, inspirational video, self improvement, self help, self development, personal development, short film, inspirational, life lessons, lizzy howell, lizzy dances, ballerina, being a dancer, following your dreams, true story, jordan matter

Id: 9skk3hIZq98

Length: 27min 4sec (1624 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 05 2021