II. INJURIES, PREVENTION AND CURE

Chapter 1. General Comments

When we consider what is demanded of the framework of the body from the time of the first lesson at the barre to the appearance of the dancer on the stage, it is not surprising that from time to time there should be mishaps, and that protesting muscles, joints and ligaments should occasionally give trouble. Yet on the whole there is remarkably little that goes wrong, provided that the pupil has no structural defects, speaking from the point of view of ballet training. During the early years, up to about twelve years of age, complaints of aches and pains are normally trivial. During the teens and with the advent of pointe work, they are liable to need more consideration, and of course with the heavy time-table of the professional dancer, and at times the modern choreographer's sublime disregard for the limitations of the human body, injuries, as apart from strain, are more likely to occur. Nevertheless they are rare in proportion to the number of performers involved, and though it may seem, as we list the possibilities, that ballet is a dangerous career leaving in its trail a long list of casualties, in actual fact the record both for fitness and freedom from disabling mishaps in a ballet company is extremely good, and this in spite of the long hours of work and rehearsals, irregular meals and lack of fresh air.

There are a certain number of typical stresses and strains that may be found in any ballet school, or indeed in classes for amateurs who often go beyond merely elementary work. Some of these undoubtedly would not be heard of were every pupil perfectly constructed for ballet training, or even if those with special and similar difficulties could be taught together. We have already referred to the danger of such general injunctions as "pull up the thighs" and "tuck in the tail" which may be necessary for the majority but unwise for such types of backs as figures 26 and knees as seen in figures 13 and 14. Short of this idealistic conception of the classroom, however, some precautions can be taken if the teacher is aware of the make-up of each pupil. This entails that she should see them at intervals in bare feet and at the most a bathing slip only. Children are intelligent little creatures about their own bodies and can be shown quite young how to work with special relation to their own physical problems. For example, had the children in figures 13 and 14 been told to avoid pulling up the thighs too strongly at eight years old it is certain that there would have been a much lesser degree, if any, of "sway-back" in the knees at eighteen and twelve respectively, and so with the twelve-year-old back in illustration 22. Apart from these manifest cases, however, there are the small aches and pains which are often related to some physical particularity and it may be possible to find the link, and so deal with both prevention and cure.

Before going into further details of such, it must be made clear that the object in discussing them is not in any way to discourage the seeking of medical advice. Indeed, in certain cases it is imperative to do so; but the majority are transient and trivial, and the average medical practitioner, who cannot be expected to understand the niceties of ballet technique, can usually do no more than prescribe rest, or dismiss them as unimportant; as indeed they are, but may yet render the dancer unable to work in class. Our object here is merely to help the teacher to discriminate between those small aches which follow a very definite pattern and the more serious pains which should be referred for medical diagnosis. Nor is the intention to ignore the various forms of treatment that may sometimes be neces­sary—physiotherapy, manipulation, injection and so on—but rather to help on such treatment and prevent any recurrence of the trouble by eliminating any cause for which errors in technique in the class­room may be responsible.