What have I been up to recently?

The last few months for me have been a really hard time, dealing with quite a severe injury and not being able to perform fully or even take a class without feeling any pain. Still being at work and in that environment and watching everybody else continue to dance, improve and perform has been a real challenge for the past few months. I have been able to perform some roles including character roles and roles that don’t involve much jumping or added strain to my knee injury. Recently I have not been in any rehearsals and performances at all due to the nature of the current performance. This has given me time to do proper rehabilitation to get to a better mental place and also take a step back and think about what I want for the rest of my career as a professional dancer and what I want to do after that.

 I’m currently almost back to full performance standard, I have my good days and my bad days and I think it’s really important just to remember how far I’ve come and also not be too hard on myself to try and stay positive because being negative brings nothing but negativity. I’m grateful to have had teachers and friends and family who have supported me in the past few months and I think I'm most grateful for my dog. I don’t think we can ever underestimate the power our furry friends have on our mental well-being. After a tough day, there is nothing better than a good cuddle with my dog and a nice long walk listening to a podcast or audiobook. I should also feel fortunate because this is my first major injury since becoming a dancer, almost 10 years ago. 

I’ve realised it’s really important to just focus and concentrate on yourself, to compete with yourself and to not always compare yourself to others around you. To stay positive, keep looking forward and take each day as it comes, and remember that even little progress is some progress. 

I’ve also found that hobbies and things outside of my professional life have been instrumental in my mental recovery, which facilitates my physical recovery because I believe, negativity can hold back your physical recovery from an injury or even just from progressing in general. So one of the things I like to do
is bake cakes for my friend's birthdays. Recently I made a lemon cake, which was delicious. It’s important to remember to do things that make us happy, especially when we’re at our lowest. Although we all love our professional practices, I believe it’s imperative to have something outside of that, because what if one day that is taken away for us for some reason, whether that’s a long period or a short period. While we all give a lot to our professional practice it’s important to save space and to have other interests outside of it because those interests can also facilitate and help us to expand and improve on our own practices.