Injuries and dancing

I've been lucky (knock on wood) in my life as a dancer that I haven't done more than sprained my ankle a couple times.  Small things like floor burn and bruises are just signs that you've been really dancing (and way back when in the pointe shoe days, blisters etc. were inevitable of course. Nowadays, I like dancing barefoot. ;) Then there are some pretty crazy stories of dancers who've been injured, and recovered from injury: torn tendons, dislocated shoulders, broken feet/ankles, and chronic things like tendonitis, etc. Here's a page from Harkness Center about "common dance injuries." I once was in class with a man who had lost a leg and was back dancing. The determination and patience and sheer love of dancing that keeps people moving through the pain and frustration of recovering/dealing with injury is impressive, "human strength is amazing" kinda stuff. And it's always funny the sort of blaise attitude "oh yeah, I can't really hurt that foot, I've broken it already a couple times so I can't feel much on it anyway."

So this Sunday, Feb. 6, as I've said, we're talking about injuries, and preventing them, at the DanceATL meeting. That and nutrition and other related dancer health issues. It's an earlier meeting than usual (3:30-5:30 pm) so you can still make it in time to watch and hope no one injures themselves playing football (sheer luck that the timing worked out on this. I'm so not a football fan I didn't even remember it was the Super Bowl till my hubby reminded me!) So I hope to see you there!

And because this meeting has been very last minute, even as these things have gone the last year, I'm hoping to solidify the next meeting sooner. My thought is that since it's in April 3, just before the semester ends, we should focus on folks who are graduating from the dance programs around town (now that we have 5, woohoo!) Are they planning on staying in the Atlanta area? Will they be dancing? I'm hoping to find some folks to speak who have done just that, stayed around and danced. Any thoughts on good folks to invite? I have a few ideas, but would love any suggestions too. Thanks!