Anna had brain surgery, 33 radiation treatments and chemo. Her parents say they almost lost her several times. -- There's that saying -- that you can't go back, that you can only go forward. For 18-year-old Anna Mott, there is no way to retrace her steps, to recover the past. Her dad says, "She started when she was three and she was a natural. She just had a natural gift for it. It took her over and it's part of who she is. She had dreams to be a professional dancer." Anna had a grace, a maturity that earned her lead roles at a young age. Ballet became her family's life. "It was part of our whole family experience, our dynamic was we have dancers in our family. She lived to perform." Legally blind, HS student takes cello to Carnegie Hall Her mom Melissa remembers when, "She was in rehearsals for The Nutcracker and she was like, 'Mom, my back is really bad.'" Four years ago, Anna was dancing through pain so unbearable she couldn't walk afterwards. "She came off the stage to the side of the stage. Her dad picked her up. He carried her to the car." The pain was eventually traced to its source, a baseball sized brain tumor, Pineoblastoma. Her dad remembers when the surgeon said to him, "'Wait a minute, let me show you what a normal brain looks like.' I don't even know what he said after that it was like a kick in the gut...it was horrible." Anna had brain surgery, 33 radiation treatments and chemo. Her parents say they almost lost her several times. The treatment left her partially paralyzed, and blind. Melissa Mott says, "She was pretty much vegetative and unresponsive after her surgeries for a long, long time." Parts of Anna were gone. "She has a lot of cognitive deficits." But ballet remained. Her recovery can be measured in lyrical arm movements, in the line of her leg, and the point of her toes. Baby born without a nose is heading home Anna says, "I love movement. I love being able to express myself." With the help of her sisters, and her ballet family, Anna is dancing. "I'm doing stuff where when I would move my arms with my head, extending outward into elongee." Having to dance with little balance and no sight has been difficult. "It's really awesome! When I first started, it made me really nervous..it made me shaky and quaky and stuff and I wasn't sure but because my sisters have been helping me at home with my own , I figured out my range of motion and I know where to put my hands now." At the Jenny Anderson theater in Marietta, on a spring night, Anna returns to the stage. For a moment it is as it used to be. She has the solo again. What she can no longer see, Anna can still feel. Watching her, her dad says, "I have the same feelings I had before but even more so because I know that it's a miracle." It is beauty at its truest at its deepest. After her performance, Anna says, "This is honestly the best I have felt in the past three years. No matter what happens to you in life, you can do anything." UPDATE December 2015: Anna continues to dance. She is performing in a christmas program and she has joined a teen class. She is now riding horses and it's helping gain even more strength. And Anna has added tap dancing to her repertoire. Most importantly, her MRI's are coming back clear.

WXIA