Ivan Cottini, multiple sclerosis and the courage to face it by dancing in a wheelchair – time.news

2023-05-20 17:29:26

Of Ruggiero Corcella

The disease manifested itself when he was 25 years old. And, from a model devoted to success, it has transformed it into a symbol of resilience. Now he has written a book in which he talks about himself and brings his dance throughout Italy to testify that nothing is impossible

Chi Ivan Cottini and why did you want to write a book about your disease, multiple sclerosis? (The dance of the butterfly. My life with multiple sclerosis; Ivan Cottini ; Piemme; Pages 190; Euro 17.90) the beautiful, loser and rebellious character, how do you describe yourself? Or the sick desecrator, the one who organizes toga party while hospitalized? Who is Ivan Cottini? The fat and bullied child from classmates or the ugly duckling who then turns into a swan and a cynical womanizer? The man with 106 tattoosthe vain, the superficial, the slothful busy running after the empty banner of social media, the appearance on television, the world of fashion, the obsession with returning to the Sanremo stage? Or the man who whispers to plantsthe dancer in a wheelchair who charms, the sensitive son and brother, the tender and a little crazy father of Viola, who is 8 years old today?

The before and after

Everyone and no one. Ivan divisive, from all points of view. Either he hates himself or he loves himself. And he knows it. He has always played with this ability to arouse conflicting feelings hide and keep doing it. She served him to emerge from an unknown corner of the Marche province. She supported him while he rode the wave of ephemeral notoriety. But this was before the disease, as often happens, separated the waters of his existencebuilding an impassable wall. Up to the age of 25, there is the hedonist Ivandevoted to climbing the world by all possible means.

an Ivan I don’t recognize, I didn’t like. I don’t want to look for justifications, but at 20 you are so hungry to appear. You throw yourself headlong into things with such ingenuity. Now the disease makes me see the world in a different perspective and, I like to say, today I am a better person. bad to admit it, but I have to thank the disease: he “saved” me from Ivan who was immersed in a world that would certainly have crushed me. For him, the after an April morning of 2013. He wakes up and can’t see practically anymore with his right eye. A brief hospitalization, resignation and after two days problems with balance appear, numbness in the right leg. Other investigations, spots in the cerebellum and the final verdict: multiple sclerosis.

Man-image

At home we all died, he notes in the book. But in those convulsive, dark and painful months, the new Ivan comes to light. And the rebirth begins. The strongest motivation came to me from the desire to make others happy, not to make them suffer. As a perfect man-image, he takes advantage of social media and documents every moment of the disease. He is contacted by Aism (the Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association) Pesaro-Urbino which proposes to make a calendar to pass on my strength to other sufferers and raise funds for disease research. Each month would represent a different situation in which the limits of multiple sclerosis were mocked, in an attempt to make them less impassable.

A blockbuster tells, followed by interviews and articles, requests to participate in events. We are in the early summer of 2015. During one evening, Giovanna, a girl engaged in a fundraiser, contacts him. She proposes to him dance, making small movements with the arms. A static dance, not very intriguing, she writes. Able to trigger something. He understands that even those awkward gestures immediately catch on the public. I sensed the revolutionary significance of that first step into the world of dance, the positive symbolic value that my person united with dance could testify. And from that performance they begin to call him the patient with sclerosis who dances.

From the hospital to the stage

Dance becomes the powerful fuel to keep going. When I dance, like making love. I have an explosion of endorphins which is enough for me for one or two months even if then I have to stay a week, ten days, in bed with all the aches and pains and various problems in addition to those of the disease. To then leave. The dance kicks me in the c… sickness and makes me feel good mentally. I can face any difficulty.

In Ivan’s second life, those are not lacking: in addition to the mountains of multiple sclerosis to climb at any moment, the hostility of other patients as well like him who judge him too over the top, they even accuse him of exploiting the disease for money and spew hate on social media. But he doesn’t budge. When you get sick you have two roads: either you get angry every day, foment anger against yourself, everything and everyone or you react, go ahead with a smile and carry the disease on your shoulders like a travel and playmate. I chose the second. Which cost Ivan a lot, even on a personal level. Affections and love have escaped like sand between the fingers.

All that remains is dance, his mother, Viola and the uncertainty of tomorrow. Unfortunately I don’t look to the future, I sail on sight and live day by day. I hope to see my daughter grow up for as long as possible. my greatest wish. As an inheritance, I would like to leave you the true values ​​of life. Those values ​​for which it is really worth waking up every morning.

May 20, 2023 (change May 20, 2023 | 08:05)

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