Injury Time....

I came home from performance tonight and plonked myself on the sofa and as i sat with an ice pack on one part of my body whilst rubbing cream into another,

my roommate asked why do dancers get injured so often?

(i guess he hears me complaining a lot!)

I thought about the answer.

Some injuries come from unpreventable accidents,

Some come from poor technical training.

Some come from poorly looking after your body.

Some come from general daily wear and tear.

Some come from being over-worked.

i pulled my groin muscle yesterday in performance.

This one was from not looking after my body.

I had a gap (maybe 15mins) between two of the dance parts i do.

The music inbetween is almost trance-like,

i sat down in the wings and i began to doze off....

and then Wham!

i hear my music,

i run on stage,

kick my leg up 180 degrees,

and pop!

There it goes.

Captain Tim was informed and

told me i should take a couple of days off.

Yeah right!

A couple of days off in the middle of performances for a measly groin strain.

I told him i'll survive,

groin strains are just an annoyance more than anything

(am i using the word groin too much)

cause they take a while to recover,

but can be danced through.

I remember once going to a Physio

when i had back problems and he noted that i had

pulled my hamstring during the last week since i had seen him.

'oh yeah, that....it heal'

He informed me that people came to him specifically for that problem,

really?

a hamstring pull just seems to me pat and parcel

with kicking my leg around like crazy,

it happens,

it will recover.

My knee on the other hand bothers me.

Its been a long term thing now (6months)

I'm being careful to not push it too much,

keep it always warm,

do my physio exercises.

I had to pay to go see a physiotherapist on my own time during my holidays.

I could only afford one session although he told me i needed follow-ups

Injuries could probably be prevented/looked after better if their was more money for the dance companies too.

The bigger better funded ones probably have better facilities to care for their dancers,

but go down the scale a little and you'll find dancers being given no care for their injuries at all and being pushed to work through them.

I had a friend made to dance the Black Swan on a broken toe recently,

another from another company crying down the phone

to me this week that all her toenails had fallen off and they wouldnt let her take sick leave....

she could barely walk, never mind make it to rehearsals.

(i know this isnt the best of photos, it was taken just quickly

before curtain up, one of my legs looks huge and the other one tiny!)