On Point

Today, I spent a morning rotating in the sports medicine clinic. My last patient of the day was a young ballerina. She was there to be seen, surprise surprise, for a dancer’s fracture. She was dancing  on point (see above photo) when she suddenly had sharp pain on the outside of her foot. X rays showed the above mentioned fracture. More interestingly, she was telling me about her training regimen and I have to admit I was very impressed by this teenager. She was no ordinary ballerina who takes lessons one or two times per week. She is actually a student at the ballet academy here in the city. Not only does she take ballet classes, but she does it six days a week, twice a day. It’s more than a dance school, it’s a full on school which also has all the classes that a normal kid takes in high school as part of the daily curriculum. Further, she’s actually from the West Coast, so as part of her enrollment, she gets an apartment for her and her family in one of the nicer downtown buildings. All her meals are provided for as well as trainers and other amenities.  I’d never heard of this school, but was aware that the academy existed. I’ve often see them dancing through the windows as I walked to work at 630 AM. She and this program sounded quite impressive, and luckily she’ll be back on her tip toes before long