Ballet Dancers’ Injuries
Why do dancers keep dancing when they get injured, which risks making it worse?
Actually, there are lots of reasons why dancers won’t to take a break when injury strikes.
All dancers are taught that pain is good, because muscle pain after a workout is seen as a positive. If you do a workout and don’t ache the next morning, you didn’t work hard enough! Unfortunately, this means we dancers have a high pain tolerance, so when bad pain occurs – thanks to an injury – we (incorrectly) interpret it as manageable.
That’s particularly the case when it comes to pointework – which even at the best of times, can hurt some dancers. I’m fortunate that I have a “peasant” foot so I tolerate the strain of pointework well, but not every dancer is so lucky.
For professional dancers, there are other reasons to resist pandering to an injury. Professional ballet is highly competitive – if you have a rest to get well, other performers will walk into that plum part or dance that coveted solo, and you may have an uphill battle to resume your former position when you get back. Anyway, some dancers are paid by performance – if you don’t dance, you don’t get paid!
The final explanation, and a crucial one, is poor nutrition. There’s plenty of discussion in the ballet world about fostering good body image – but in reality, there’s little sign that the culture has changed. There’s still pressure on girls to be very thin.
Many female ballet students are severely underweight, to the point where their menstrual cycle ceases (as happens in anorexia), and it’s not just because they work so intensively. It’s not unusual that their diets are restricted or unbalanced, with insufficient protein or fats to maintain muscle and bone health. Far too many students eat like a sparrow at mealtimes, and snack on chocolate between classes to keep themselves going.
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