Acupuncture and Pirouettes

Somehow it's been almost ten weeks since I updated this blog. 

After consulting some pain management specialists and researching on the 'net, I've come to the conclusion that there are at least two causes of tendinitis. One is a weakness in the tendon and/or attachment, for which strengthening exercises are an appropriate treatment. Another is excessive tightness in the muscles attaching to the tendons which causes excessive strain on the tendons when the joint flexes.

I've long suffered from chronic muscle tightness and cramping, especially in my legs. Thus I suspected I'd benefit more from treatments that would reduce that tightness. A friend of mine from class mentioned she'd been seeing a Chinese medicine and acupuncture specialist for some physical issues. I'm normally a very science-oriented person who wants to understand the scientific basis for any treatments I receive and I have no idea why acupuncture works, but figured I might give it a try.

Each session included what I consider three modalities: acupuncture needles, electrostim, and manual massage. I'm not going to try to sort out which one or combination was the most effective. I will say, though, that I gained a fair bit of flexibility, and it hurt a lot less than getting the "dry needling" advocated by my chiropractor. This has allowed me to return to classes, though not at the four-per-week rate had had been doing. My left heel is still sore after classes, but not to where I worry I'm causing injury.

I didn't take any photos of the acupuncture, and I'd be hesitant to post them anyway as needles freak some people out. I let the doc some cupping on my side to loosen some restrictions there, so I'll share a photo of the results of that. It kinda looks like I was attacked by an octopus. The redness faded after a day or two. I wasn't expecting it to have any lingering effects, but I think it may have helped for at least a few days.

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Some of my classmates look at themselves in the mirror a lot. Wherever they are in the studio they make sure they can see themselves clearly. I don't like trying to watch myself in the mirror while I'm dancing; partly because I'm a bit nearsighted, which makes it hard to see anything in detail, and partly because I'm mentally focused on remembering what the next step is.

A couple of weeks ago, one of my instructors was getting on my case about my spotting. Or should I say, lack of spotting. "You have all the moves," she said, "but it's not a pirouette if you don't spot." Yes, not only do I pay for this abuse 😁 but I encourage it. Seriously, though, this is praise, constructive criticism, and encouragement all blended together.

My spotting while doing piqué turns is okay, but at some point years ago I started focusing on my hands while doing pirouettes and that killed my spotting. As part of my effort to fix that I resolved to try watching myself in the mirror more. Then I noticed something I didn't realize I was doing: when initiating a pirouette en dehor I was using my working leg to start my rotation rather than just sliding it up my standing leg to passé. This isn't correct, and I wondered if it was destabilizing me.

During an idle moment in centre I practiced rising to the pirouette position without rotating a few times to get the movement fixed in my head. Then I tried a pirouette using only my arms to start the rotation. To my surprise I found I had no trouble rotating a turn and a half, and was still nicely balanced at the end. Then I tried it again with a bit more rotational energy; I went around twice and was still balanced. It was the cleanest double pirouette I'd ever managed.

Now, there have been occasions when I've pulled off double pirouettes before. But never had I done one where I was still nicely balanced on demi-pointe afterward. I thought maybe this was a fluke, but the next class I did it again. Maybe I was on to something? Yesterday I did one as part of a centre exercise and it worked, though I ended up a bit behind timing for the next step. At the moment it's only working well for en dehor to the right, but I'm hoping I'll figure out turning to the left soon.