Five years ago, a dancer lost her legs and her 10-month-old daughter when an earthquake struck Wenchuan, Sichuan Province in 2008, leaving about 87,000 people dead or missing and more than 370,000 injured.

Two months after the quake, she performed her signature drum dance for people who were traumatized by the earthquake, encouraging them to restart life.

On April 20 this year, when an earthquake hit Lushan county in the same province, she arrived in disaster-ridden areas on the same day and helped victims pitch tents, distribute food and water and took part in the effort to rebuild their homes.

She is Liao Zhi, a 28-year-old dancer.

She once dreamed of becoming a top dancer. However, the 2008 earthquake altered the course of her life. Her lower legs were amputated after the Wenchuan earthquake took the life of her daughter.

"I was once buried underground and rescued by someone. Now, I really want to help others as a way of expressing my gratitude for them," she said.

Liao arrived in Longmen village, one of the hardest-hit areas in Lushan soon after the quake. She came there to help with rescue efforts and offer psychological comfort for those who were buried under debris.

Giving back

"When I was buried underground in 2008, it was a great comfort for me if I could hear people's voices. As long as you can hear people's voices, you can keep spirits up," Liao told the Global Times.

However, when she arrived, she found that the most urgent problem was that local villagers lacked tents, food and water.

"It rained the first several days after the earthquake, but the local villagers had no place to take shelter, because their houses were unsafe to live in. We had to help them make tents," Liao said.

By that time, few disaster-relief materials had been transported to remote villages including Longmen because of traffic congestion. Liao and other volunteers drove to Ya'an, seat of Lushan county, and spent 4,000 yuan ($647.60) on plastic sheets and tarpaulins and helped villagers erect dozens of tents within five days of the quake.

They also distributed instant noodles and bottled water to local villagers, but the supply was limited. Liao and her partners were so exhausted, having barely slept or eaten during this time. In her microblog, Liao wrote, "Aftershocks came again and again, but I didn't have the strength to stand up and run."

Liao left the disaster area and returned to Chongqing five days after the quake. News of her volunteer work has aroused controversy, as some people doubt her motives. Web users have suggested that Liao went to the disaster zone to seize public attention, because she has been participating in a dance talent show.

"You cannot be distracted by people's doubts about you. People who really want to help do not care about criticism," Liao said.

Earth-shattering events

Liao has walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

When the 2008 earthquake hit, Liao, her mother-in-law and her daughter were buried under their collapsed house. Her daughter and mother-in-law died immediately by her side. Desperate, Liao had also planned to give up on her life and refused to respond to the rescuers until she heard her father's call.

"My father stood on the debris, told rescuers he would never leave the site if I did not respond. I had to answer him, and I realized I had to live," Liao said.

After being buried for 26 hours, she was rescued. When she was brought out from under the rubble, her neighbors all came and surrounded her, telling her to live well, because she was the only survivor who had been buried under that building.

Unfortunately, her legs had to be amputated - not only was she a mother who lost her child, she became a dancer who lost her feet. Life became a flood of tears.

Even though she is handicapped, Liao says she cannot give up dancing. "Dancing is my life," Liao told the Global Times.

After these devastating events, a friend came to visit her and asked her whether she would ever dance again. She wiped away her tears and answered yes.

She began practicing walking on her prosthetic legs, which proved to be no easy task.

"She bled every time she practiced dancing. I told her to give up, but she wouldn't listen," Bai Jia, Liao's mother, said. The dancer was determined, drawing inspiration from childhood fairytale "The Little Mermaid."

"She danced and danced, even though each time she put her foot on the ground, she felt she was walking on the edge of a sword," she quoted from the story during her interview.

Dancing through the pain

Over time, she invented a new type of dancing, drum dance, where she stands on a drum and beats out rhythms with her prosthetic feet. Audiences have drawn much inspiration from her performances, which express the resilience of the human spirit.

As a member of the Chengdu Disabled Persons Artistic Performance Troupe, she has traveled all over Sichuan and other provinces holding charity events. She also hosted a gala with other performers to raise money for the victims of the 2008 earthquake.

Despite the passing of time, the pain of losing her daughter has not faded. When the sorrow overcomes her, she says, she dances.

On Children's Day last year, Liao wept as she performed in front of children at a local kindergarten in Chongqing. It was impossible not to think of her child.

"Chongchong never celebrated one single Children's Day before she left the world," Liao said. At the end of her performance, Liao sang a song for her daughter in heaven as a Children's Day present to her.

She often dreams about her daughter. In one recurring dream, Chongchong tells her she is only playing hide-and-seek and that she will come back when the game is over, leaving Liao to awaken to her pillow soaked in tears.

Her life collapsed again when her husband divorced her. He said he could never forget the image of their dead daughter as long as he could see his wife.

In 2009, Liao became a Christian. Through reading the Bible and going to church, she gradually recovered from the sadness of losing the daughter and the breakdown of her family. She began focusing on doing charity work to give back to society.

Since 2009, Liao has been teaching dance to children as part of a psychological therapy.

"Fostering children's love for dance can offer them a good path for recovering from trauma," Liao said.

Liao's biggest dream is to establish a charity foundation to help people who lose family members and treasured belongings in earthquakes.