Getting old sucks!

It's a truism that getting old sucks. The problem is that the only alternative to aging doesn't seem that attractive to me.

Yes, I know, it's been a year and a half since I updated this blog. I'm still taking ballet classes. Two years ago I was taking as many as four classes a week. But that was causing an increasing number of issues like tendonitis, so I backed down to two classes a week. For quite a while that seemed like a sustainable number.

Then, in early February of this year, I went to do a simple grand plié during barre. Something felt off. At the bottom of the plié it felt like I had something soft behind my knee, like a pillow, that was preventing it from bending as much as it usually did. There was no noticeable swelling and it didn't hurt, but it limited the depth of my plié in both first and fifth. I figured I might have not gotten enough warm-up before class or something. It didn't seem to affect me other than in class.

Easing back in

Last Friday I was happy to have made it to class, but ended up leaving during adagio. I did take the weekend off, with full intent of going to class Monday.

Monday I tried to go to the noon Advanced Beginner class. I really did try. I hit the road at my normal time (about 11am). As I turned onto the highway entrance ramp I saw nothing but stopped cars on both the entrance ramp and the highway. Google Maps said there was a 5 minute delay. Ten minutes into the 5 minute delay I'd managed to travel about 50 yards on the entrance ramp and hadn't even reached the highway yet.

Back from the dead

After being absent from classes for over three weeks, I made it to class today. Several people commented on how long it had been since they'd seen me, and there was some good-natured ribbing about whether I was lost and wandered in by accident.

I hadn't been in this instructor's classes for even longer, sacrificed in the hope of speeding the recovery of my ankle/foot issues. She offered several valid and helpful corrections, but I was having enough trouble with balance and muscle cramps that I wasn't able to absorb many of them. After barre I approached her and explained that I'd been sick, and although I was much better I probably wouldn't make it as far as petit allegro today.

Sick, but it's not the plague

 

Late last week I started to have seasonal allergy symptoms: itchy eyes, runny nose, sneezing, etc. This coincided with a few beautiful days with comfortable temperatures that led me to open the windows. The thing is, I don't normally have seasonal allergies.

Sunday I was getting ready to leave my house for class. I had my keys in my hand and was reaching for my dance bag when I realized I didn't feel well. Although I'd been looking forward to class with this instructor, I decided I could just as easily take a class the next day when I was feeling better.

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.

Bilateral Achilles Tendinitis

© Mayo Foundation

That's what the doctor says is causing the pain in my heels. Per the Mayo Clinic website:

Achilles tendinitis is caused by repetitive or intense strain on the Achilles tendon, the band of tissue that connects your calf muscles to your heel bone. This tendon is used when you walk, run, jump or push up on your toes.

Cuz ballet dancers don't jump or push up on their toes, right?

Catching up after Nutcracker

It's been a couple of weeks since my performances as the Grandfather in "The Maryland Nutcracker". Here I am with my "nurse" and "Grandmother".

 The "nurse" character is a hold-over from a bit of scripting that got dropped. I was originally supposed to hobble in like I was decrepit, then surprise everyone by "busting a move" in a duet with "grandmother". That was dropped in favor of me strutting in like the patriarch of the family, but the "nurse" character remained.

Personally, I'd rather they'd swapped the dancer who played the nurse into the role of the "single, independent woman" originally given to the supporting cast member who was injured in September. I thought it would have been more fitting, but that didn't happen.

My First Nutcracker

First a question for Nutcracker veterans: how long before the music stops playing in your head?

In addition to rehearsals, I watched rehearsal videos repeatedly to fix the timing of my (small) role in my head. In quiet moments I still hear it playing. A friend of mine who grew up dancing in The Nutcracker year after year told me she still hears it.

Nutcracker 2023 Tech Week

We've entered "tech week" for The Maryland Nutcracker. After having last weekend off for the US Thanksgiving holidays, we spent both days of this weekend in rehearsals. Saturday's rehearsal was noon to 4pm, starting with selected dances and ending with a full run-through. Today, Sunday, was 10am to 3:30pm, including two complete run-throughs followed by some clean-up of some problems.

Add on about 4.5 hours of driving back and forth, and I'm bushed.

Well, THAT hurt!

Monday's class was going well. I felt good. I'd managed to learn and execute the petit allegro combination reasonably well. My pirouettes were working well enough that I'd attempted a double in centre. We were doing the same grand allegro combination as on Saturday, and I was really having fun with it.

Then, as I landed some simple step in the grand allegro, I felt a sudden pain in my right heel. I half-assed the rest of the combination, skipping the saut du chat at the end completely. I found I could stand with weight on my foot without significant pain, but flexing my ankle resulted in stabs of burning pain in the heel. I skipped the rest of class -- all 3 minutes of it -- and did what I could as aftercare.

The Nutcracker claims another dancer

The Nutcracker may have claimed another dancer: one of the professionals suffered a sprained ankle during rehearsal this weekend. 

Maybe pointe shoes should come with a warning label?

Overdoing it

The exercises and insight my physical therapist has given me has completely resolved my original problem. Unfortunately, I've continued experiencing pain on the back sides of my heels, likely from excessive tightness in my calf muscles, possibly aggravated by my heel spurs.

When I arrived for class Monday I was feeling especially good. During the pirouette exercise I managed one or two (ragged) doubles en dehor. I skipped the jump preparations in favor of a bit more stretching, and the petit allegro was simple enough that I could keep up with the music. The grand allegro combination was particularly fun. Not only did I join the first group to go across the floor in each direction, but I tagged on to the last group a couple of times. I was really quite pleased.

Sticking needles into my feet

About six weeks ago I finally took action to address the pain I've been feeling in my left heel by visiting a physical therapist. Since then I've been able to resolve my initial complaint, which was pain on the lateral aspect of my left calcaneus. However, I've continued to experience stiffness in both lower legs, which results in a different pain in both heels.

During my last session, my PT commented that he thought I'd benefit from "dry needling". To quote the Cleveland Clinic website:

Dry needling is a technique that acupuncturists, physical therapists and other trained healthcare providers use to treat musculoskeletal pain and movement issues. It’s almost always used as part of a larger pain management plan that could include exercise, stretching, massage and other techniques. During this treatment, a provider inserts thin, sharp needles through your skin to treat underlying myofascial trigger points.

I've had this before to address pain in my shoulder, and said I'd consider it.

Relearning the basics

My second post-PT class went better than the first. I was able to do everything up through the pirouette combination with no pain. Instead of the jump combination I did the heel raise with a ball, as described in my previous post. I thought about attempting the petit allegro, but decided to skip it and the grand allegro.

We had a few minutes left at the end of that, so we did pique turns across the floor. I've been having difficulty recently doing these on my left foot. This time I could do them without falling out of the turns, but only if I did them at about half speed.

I'm still having to really focus on what muscles I'm using any time I'm on demi-pointe, or really any time I lift my heel. It's almost like learning to walk again, and in a way I probably am. For the moment, this is throwing everything else off. However, I figure once this becomes the norm rather than something new, the rest will come back as good or better than before. Certainly my pirouettes are now more stable, even if I'm having to do them more slowly and more deliberately.

My next PT appointment is at the end of this coming week. It'll be interesting to see what he find and suggests going forward. Maybe he can fix my glissade too?

---

I got an email from the ballet company I performed with this spring reminding me that supporting cast auditions are just a month away. No pressure though!

I'm trying to take the attitude that the audition is mostly a formality. The artistic director of the company saw me regularly in rehearsals all spring and I performed with her on stage. The managing director of the company is one of my instructors; she sees me in class every week, and she knows about my current issue. If they want me, they already know what they're getting; if they don't, there isn't much I can do in the audition to change their opinions.

That doesn't mean that I won't try to do my absolute best at the audition. Nor will that let me escape being nervous about it. Maybe I'll be less nervous than I was the first time, since that was the first time I'd ever auditioned for a role in a ballet.

I do hope I'll get a role this fall, with the hope that it'll lead to more in the future. I really enjoy working in a team. Sometimes in class, like when I get into a small group of good dancers for grand allegro, it almost feels like we're dancing together rather than as individuals. Being on stage in Midsummer this spring made that real, if only briefly. My hope is I'll get more chances to do some sort of partner work with other dancers like the lifts we did in Midsummer. I really enjoyed that, and I think the others did too: they asked to practice several times after I thought they'd gotten it down pat.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be done with my current issues before the audition.

Injuries from long ago

I suffer from Engineer's Brain (look it up). This means I automatically analyze everything in great detail -- picture the Terminator in the original movie figuring out how to drive a truck. This helped greatly in my career as a software engineer, but it's not something that gets turned on and off. This accounts for my (muffled) snarky response when my ballet instructors tell the class, "That was really good" -- I've already identified a half dozen things I've done wrong, and don't get me started on what I saw others doing.

Physical therapy

A few weeks ago a friend from class and I went to see ABT perform Giselle. At dinner before the performance I was whining about how the pain in my heel didn't seem to be getting better. My friend commented that she'd started seeing a physical therapist. Her PT was a former dancer, had really helped her dancing in ways she hadn't expected. I asked for contact info for her PT, which she happily provided.

As I was researching her PT, it occurred to me that in 2020 I'd started working with a PT who was associated with The Washington School of Ballet, and thus very familiar with ballet dancers and their injuries. I'm friends with some other dancers who'd worked extensively with him, and my first couple of sessions with him were good, but then the world shut down due to the pandemic. Patrick's office is much more convenient for me, so I booked an appointment with him.

Caught in the Annual Migration

When I walked into the studio for class Friday, I was shocked to find 30 other students when there are usually maybe 15. Five of them were men, which is the most I've ever seen in any of my classes. Many had skills far above the norm for the classes I take, executing double, triple, and even quadruple pirouettes as part of centre exercises.

I asked one of the other class regulars if he knew what was happening he replied, "It's the annual migration."

Two kinds of ballet student

I've come to believe there are two basic types of ballet students. The first type is the sort who wants to understand the steps and motions in detail, and takes classes to learn to execute them perfectly. Of course, we all know that perfection is impossible, but that's the goal we strive for.

Students of the second type are in love with the idea of ballet. This is kind of like a little girl who dresses up in a tutu and slippers and dances around with her arms in the air and thinks that's ballet, only older. The accoutrements play a critical role in creating the proper image.

I doubt many people fall strictly in one category or the other. Everyone is some mix of the two. I'm primarily of the first type, drawn to the futile attempt to achieve perfection, but I'll admit to an element of the second.

Today I ran into a student who I believe is almost entire the second type. That's rare in the classes I take.

Post-Performance Depression

 I'm not prone to "the blues" or depression, but I wasn't expecting the massive crash I experienced after completing the performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Three Weeks 'til Showtime!

I haven't been onstage in a production since my college days, some 40 years ago. But in three short weeks I'll be opening Act 2 in a locally-choreographed ballet of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in the role of Peter Quince, the leader of the actors troupe.