It's all about a maintenance routine

I just got back from a much needed massage, and it got me thinking about how important it is to maintain your body as a dancer. It's funny because if I were a professional race car driver my car would be cared for pristinely. Every inch of that car would be looked after by a team of experts with special knowledge of that particular part of the car. Yet, as dancers we sometimes neglect our instrument...our bodies. Why is that?

I think it's often that dancers are conditioned to push trough the pain. You can't be injured, so dancers tend to neglect miner pains until they become major problems. I remember as a young dancer never caring for my body until the pain was so great I couldn't stand it any more. Which is completely absurd. It is much easier to come home and ice a sore ankle, go to the chiropractor, or see a physical therapist on a semi regular basis than it is to dance through excruciating pain from an injury that was never addressed.

It is all about finding your own maintenance routine. It has taken me twenty three years of dancing to figure it out, but dancing in pain is not fun. I ice or heat everything that hurts! Even if I know its not "injured", and I go and get a deep muscle therapy massage twice a month. This has helped me so far. I am over the masochistic ballerina thing. I would prefer no pain thank you very much! I think we can all agree on that.