Dancing with the injured

[Twirly]

I had my first night back at dancing last night – thank goodness :clap: Four weeks to the day after my accident.

But it got me thinking, as these things do… one of my usual dance partners, who told me he was feeling “frisky” :what: :D , was very disappointed that he couldn’t do some of his newer and more challenging moves on me, commented after our lovely gentle dance, that it was actually quite interesting having to monitor more closely what he was doing in order to look after me and my injury. I also had to be very careful how I danced – couldn’t wiggle as much as I normally do. I also told all my partners in the rotation in the intermediates that I have a back injury at the moment, and to please be gentle (I felt a bit daft doing this :blush: but thought I should, just in case – I felt I could control things better in the beginners class, so didn’t bother).

Leads – how much information do you need from your follower about any injuries, and how do you alter your dancing/moves to accommodate that? Follows, how do you feel about telling a total stranger in rotation that you’re injured and how much do you tell them?

And I hope that I’ll get some lovely gentle dances from forumites on Sunday at the champs - please :flower:

[Jamie]

I want to know of any injury that could affect our dance.. I'll then adapt my lead to that cause. I'd rather know before hand, rather than all of a sudden hearing a yelp of pain cause I've done a move which shouldn't be done by people with xyz problem.

[dave the scaffolder]

After my double hernia and double rupture on my achillies tendon back in november i have had to dance very gently. loads of people have commented on how smooth i have suddenly become. Sometimes an injury actually improves your dancing, if your a leader.

Best of luck with your recuperation, as i know how frustrating it can be, XXX XXX DTS

[Frankie_4711]

I sustained various injuries a few weeks ago when I fell off a bike - cuts and bruises in various locations all down my right side and a few on my left leg too. Accident happened on the Saturday. Didn't dance on the Monday as I would normally have done, but did attend my usual Wednesday venue and made everyone I danced with fully aware of my injuries (mainly by showing them the sizeable, disgusting looking cut on my right elbow and the HUGE bruises on my lower legs!) and to be fair, most of them did try and be gentle with me - especially considering we were doing the Yo-yo in the Beginners class - great move with a dodgy elbow! Everything was fine in the class, but when it came to Freestyle, one guy said how hard it was to have to think about what moves he could do, be extra gentle with his lead etc. All in all though, not much of a problem (from my side, or that I was told of, anyway).

Didn't go to my usual venue on Thursday as I know it gets very crowded (Wednesday venue is never crowded!) so went to a different one which I had been to a couple of times before as I thought less likely to get bashed about. Did exactly as I had done on Wednesday (ie showed everyone my scabs and bruises!) and most tried to accommodate me ... I say 'most' because one guy decided to do a lean and had a bit of go at me, trying to prompt me, when I didn't lean against him. He did apologise when I explained again why I wasn't going to lean the right side of my body against his! And another one did one of those moves where the guy slides his hand and arm down the lady's and then hooks it over the top and under which made me scream in pain as he caught my elbow on the way round!