Dancer to Dancer

Dear Dancer,

You’re injured. You feel your body has given up on you and you’re worrying about how long you will have to sit and watch people do what you love.

Navigating an injury is one of the most conflicting things you can experience as a dancer. Who should you tell? Is it best to receive treatment or rely on tiger balm? Your experience might look like this:

Scenario 1) Hiding your pain but can’t bear to cover it up anymore

Scenario 2) An in-class injury which both your mind and body will remember

Scenario 3) A lasting niggle that has eventually caught up with you

The next step is the hardest in my opinion. Which specialist do you see? A physio, a chiropractor, a doctor, an osteopath? I have learnt the hard way that your local clinician is unlikely to understand how dancers use their bodies and what treatment/exercises to prescribe. Visiting a clinician who is well versed in dancers will allow you to receive the care your body requires to fully recover and continue to flourish in your training. You could argue the potential cost difference but remember as a dancer your body is your tool. Invest in your tools!

My motto is:

“Complete your treatment to the best of your ability once or you will be right back in the same place again. Injured.”

Viewing injuries as a setback is an easy narrative to follow however you are in a period where you need to change that narrative. Find positivity to ensure you don’t wallow in self-pity because trust me, it is not worth the time. This is your chance to reach for other creative activities and remind yourself of who you are outside of dance. It is natural to want to keep connected to the dance world so reach out and ask what you could do. Does your dance school has a costumes cupboard that is in desperate need of a glow up? Does your teacher require a class assistant (injury dependent) or help with signing in and out at the studio?

If you are strictly prescribed rest, try and complete all the tasks you had wanted to complete when you were training. This could be updating your social media, focusing on dance theory or mind-mapping future goals.

Are these tasks as thrilling as dancing? No. But you are setting yourself up to return to training in a better place than when you left.

In all seriousness, trust the process and believe in yourself.

From,

A dancer who has recovered from multiple injuries xx