Broadway performer turned award-winning choreographer David Connolly built a remarkable resumé that includes on screen, on stage and on tour collaborations with Katy Perry, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sarah Brightman, Natalie Portman, Deepa Mehta, The Canadian Tenors and The Doodlebops. Dance Magazine described his life as being "the quintessential balancing act between career and community service." Yet most impressive of all is how he has achieved such entertainment-world success with two artificial legs, having been told he'd spend his life confined to a wheelchair.

David was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia with severe congenital deformities. "My right leg was like a potato," he says, "because there wasn't enough bone to develop below the knee. My left leg was only marginally better."

Doctors in Sydney suggested a brace on the newborn's left leg, but there were no guarantees that the limb would develop the requisite strength for walking.  Connolly's intrepid mother Maureen took her baby son to Montreal to the Shriners' Hospital for Children, where a more radical solution was chosen. Both legs were amputated below the knee so Connolly could walk without a limp on two artificial ones.

Connolly spent his first five years in the hospital, until  he could walk on child-size prosthetics, and returned home. The continued constant commuting to the hospital forged an inseparable bond between mother and son.

Says Connolly, "My fascination with the human spirit began with a mother who decided that her doctors and her family were wrong and then made an extraordinary situation seem ordinary. Because of her, I never saw the situation as traumatic or myself as a victim. It was simply my life. She made sure I wasn't angry at the world."

Connolly says that as a kid, his interests were always theatrical. Other kids played sports, while he put on shows in his backyard, charging a nickel a ticket. When he was 8, his mother, having decided Sydney did not offer enough opportunities, moved her family to Waterloo, Ont., where she had a sister. The War Amps Child Amputee Program (CHAMP) took over Connolly's medical expenses in Ontario.

By late high school, he was singing and dancing in community-theatre musicals and was also a member of Project People, a Kitchener-Waterloo performance troupe that performed variety shows at fairs and events including Oktoberfest. Connolly says he simply became a good enough dancer that people didn't noticed he had artificial legs.

A Sheridan College teacher visiting Oktoberfest who saw one of his performances told Connolly about the school's musical-theatre program. He auditioned and was accepted, once again managing to conceal his disability. Says Connolly: "I think I was so happy doing what I loved, that no one noticed my feet. As a director, I try to get my actors to that same state of bliss - the joy of just being."

Straight out of Sheridan and 19 years old, Connolly was cast in the revival of Shenandoah, which went to Broadway after a Toronto run. His next gig in the 1981 Stratford production of HMS Pinafore won him a Tyrone Guthrie Award which allowed him to return to live and study in New York.  From there he landed roles in regional theatres across Canada and in musical revues on cruise ships that literally sailed around the world.

Connolly stopped performing in 1995 to turn his attention to choreography and directing, moving to Los Angeles to work with famous Hollywood choreographer Anita Mann on such mammoth projects as the Miss America Pageant and the Jerry Lewis Telethon. He ended up staying in L.A. six years, during which he choreographed National Tours, television and Las Vegas shows, and may music videos. "You don't have to do something yourself to be able to channel others," he says. "Can a coach jump as high as the athlete he's training? As long as the performers have skill sets, I can work with them by excavating what's already there, and making them look good."

Returning to Toronto, he directed and choreographed musicals, commercials and music videos across the country, as well as the dance numbers in Deepa Mehta's feature film Bollywood/Hollywood, for Judy Davis as Judy Garland in the abc mini-series, "Me and My Shadows," for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" talent search and the children's TV show "The Doodlebops." Connolly also was a wedding planner on the TV reality series Rich Bride, Poor Bride and has taught musical theatre at both Sheridan and the Randolph Academy.

Currently, David serves as The Associate Artistic Director of Drayton Entertainment, one of Canada's most successful non-for-profit theatre companies, where he has just directed and choreographed the Canadian Regional Premiere of "Mamma Mia!"  Also in 2016, David was honoured to direct a performance at the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations in New York to honour the anniversary of The Rwandan Genocide.

Says Connolly: "My goal is to help people redefine what's possible by reminding them to approach their goals one step at a time."