Upon the completion of my questions and research for my Inquiry, I then decided to question others who are related to the same profession in order to gather together different peoples opinions, views and values.
I first decided to question a professional associate of mine. Hayley Bence is also completing this course and after I read her comment on my blog post I decided to get in contact in order to find out more information.
I asked Hayley for more information about her back problems and she told me that she first started having problems in her first year of training. It was something she has been constantly battling with throughout her training. Hayley stated that she never felt fully comfortable having to constantly explain the extent of her back injuries, which is why she found it easier to learn how to handle her injuries herself as she knew from experience, what her body was capable of doing. This is where her opinion on whether to notify others of her injury came from.
Hayley stated in response to “This has made me question the idea, that if we find ourselves injured or with a disability, does this stop us in continuing with our chosen profession?” that as long as we have the correct knowledge of how to handle an injury, then we can still continue to work in our chosen profession.
Another person i decided to question is my boss Chris Tierney. Although he has not had any dance training himself, he still trained as an Actor and now is head of Drama at Upton High School. He was explaining to me how he had injured himself a year ago when he slipped on some ice. He badly injured his ankle by tearing one of the ligaments in his foot. He stated that his ankle has never been the same and he suffers with pain from it still to this day. Although this did not effect his working environment, he stated that as a Teacher who has been injured, he is able to be more sympathetic towards those who suffer from injuries also. This then made me want to add another question to my inquiry.
“Can we only have a true understanding of having an injury/ disability if we have been through that experience personally?”
I then decided to speak to one of my students whom I teach. At present she is recovering form a back injury which led to her needing 6 weeks off dance. At the moment she is having to play “catch up”, and she has had to defer for her next assessment as she is still not fully capable of completing the required assignment full out. She told me that she found it frustrating that she had missed so many dance classes, and that she still couldn’t commit herself fully to the exercises, etc. However, she felt that her time off dance only made her more eager to recover quickly and get back into dancing. Amy came to every single class, even though she could not dance, to make notes, keep track of the choreography and to make certain she would not be missing out on any vital information. By watching the other girls in their lessons, Amy said it only inspired her to really make the most of it once she came back to dance, and to savour every moment. It has been a hard process for her to deal with, but she claimed that it has made me a stronger dance in the sense that her overall knowledge has improved just by observing the classes.
I am still yet to interview more people, my aim is to obtain an extensive variety of responses, any by doing so, help me to find more questions and theories along the way.
I was told by my dance teacher that a sprained ankle never meets full recovery (an overstretched ligament cannot be restored), and that a dancer has to deal with it for the rest of their career,even if it didn't stop them from dancing...
ReplyDeleteI suffered from a level 3 ankle sprain over a year ago. When I was on crutches, it felt as if my ankle would never be the same again, but after a term of absolute rest and rehabilitation following the school physio, I was able to come back to full dance. Rehabilitation was the most stressful stage of the recovery process, as I slowly had to regain strength that I lost.
In my case, a quick and appopriate treatment/instructions by professionally trained staff (physio therapists) and understanding of the dance teachers during the rehab were very important. (Teachers who had suffered from injury knew how far I should push myself in class.)
Ankle injury happens a lot in dance, but dancers often push themselves through pain for obligation such as rehearsals and performance, or for the simple reason that they don't want to get left behind in class.
After going through the whole process, I could understand the psychology such as frustration, anxiety and loneliness of dealing with injury more than before. I could remember what words and behaviour encouraged and supported me; before that, I didn't know what to say or do to the injured ones. I think this experience will become a strength when I become a teacher.
Hope this helps...
Mina