Three Days and Counting Until the End of the ABT Summer Intensive

The American Ballet Theatre summer intensive is winding to a close. The kids are rehearsing their numbers and getting ready to go up to LaGuardia High School, New York’s performing high school — the one the movie “Fame” was based upon — for a run through tomorrow. That’s where their final performance will be held on Friday. Two performances, and then it’s over.

I think Julian will be very sad, but he’s leaving with a really good friend or two and a much stronger and able dance body. In general, he’s become a better dancer.

Julian did get his foot “stuck” yesterday dancing in his jazz shoes for the first time. It hurt his ankle and the bottom of his foot. He tapped in the evening with Michelle Dorrance anyway, and he said it was better today. That’s his first injury since the heel jam…

In the meantime, he had a jazz lesson at Alvin Ailey with Sue Samuels, Jason Samuels Smith’s mother. He enjoyed that and plans to return this coming Saturday as well. He also had a private lesson with Jason later that same day.

OMG! Just the warm up was something to see! As Jason said, he threw everything at Julian. I’ve never seen a warm up like that one, but I suppose that’s the norm for someone as good as Jason. Julian kept up most of the time… And the rest of the hour wasn’t much easier. Jason simply assumed Julian would be able to do what ever he asked, no matter how hard. The final assessment: Julian has the ability to do it but has to work on clarity of sound. “Articulation” was the word Jason used and that Julian was asked to remember. What an opportunity that was! I took some videos, but I have to ask permission to put any of them on line…

Next week — our last — Julian will simply go from studio to studio to dance. He’ll do more than tap and ballet, taking hip hop, jazz, modern, contemporary (whatever he can find) every day. I figure we can afford about two classes a day (maybe three on some days) for the duration of our time here. We’ll not only go to Broadway Dance Center, but to Alvin Ailey, Steps on Broadway, and possibly also to Peridance Center, which is located in the same building as ABT at 890 Broadway. Of course, we are still hoping for that private with Denise Wall as well.

I must say that I’ve spent a lot in the last two weeks on Broadway shows and such. Three extra tickets to Billy Elliot cost a ton (to take my daughter), and Julian doesn’t want me to sell the other two we have. I just hope we see someone different this next time. We saw Kiril Kulish last time. (Anyone have inside info and know who is performing July 29?) We also saw Lion King, which we saw long ago but my daughter wanted to see for the costumes (she wants to be a costume designer), and West Side Story. What’s a trip to NYC for seven weeks, though, without seeing some theater?

Anyway, we are back on a budget. We do have tickets to see Pilobolus dance next week and are hoping to get discounted tickets to Stomp. Maybe we’ll try to see something at the Joyce Soho again, which is cheap, but Broadway is off limits to us at this point, and we are eating $1 pizza slices.

More soon…

ABT Summer Intensive Half Over: Feeling Good and Wishing for More Time

Last week went off without a hitch — yes, even without Mom around to make sure Julian remained healthy. Of course, he was with a mom who makes sure her son goes to bed early and eats well and takes all his vitamins and supplements and such, so I knew Julian was in good hands.

The two boys only ended up going to tap class at Broadway Dance Center one night last week, and Julian loved the class he took. ABT actually had two late start days, which meant they only danced six hours, rather than seven, those days. And, on top of that, they had Friday off for the 4th of July. The boys were going to go to Steps on Broadway for a ballet class that day, but after walking six miles earlier in the day they were too tired! (I would have been, too…)

It seems that the third week of a summer dance intensive really is a turn-around week. The kids who have struggled the first two weeks start feeling better and getting used to the rigour of the schedule. Of  course, many of the kids who are at a ballet intensive like this one are home schooled and dance five or six hours a day already; they don’t find the intensive that much harder than what they already do. Many of the kids who are  in very intensive ballet programs at home also handle the program better than Julian has as well. His program at Teen Dance Company only requires that he dance three or three and a half hours a day four days a week. He usually throws in an extra couple of hours one day a week, and rehearsals add in extra hours on the weekends as well (which means he dances about 18 hours a week — sometimes more), but he isn’t dancing six or seven hours a day during the school year by any stretch of the imagination. That explains why he was so tired and sore the first week, and was still suffering from exhaustion the second week.

The physical therapist taped his foot last week, which helped that issue. She gave him stretches as well. He’ll see her again tomorrow. Thus, his foot is bothering him less. He drank a lot of water and fluids with electrolytes also. All in all, he seems to be doing better at this point.

Julian and I had a nice reunion when I picked him up on Friday…he even hugged me and told me he missed me. We went out for a nice Italian dinner, had Pinkberry yogurt and then came back and watched a two-week-old episode of So You Think You Can Dance on the computer (thanks to my mom, who sent us the recorded DVDs). We still have no television… (Julian bought the third book in the Eragon series yesterday, so I’m happy to say we will be spending some nights reading.)

We had a super Saturday: First, off to Broadway Dance Center, where Julian tapped with his old teacher and former (and current) Tap Dog Anthony LoCascio. Then we rushed off to the Metropolitan Opera House to see ABT perform in Sylvia. Then home and then out for a calzone and off to the West Side Highway to sit in “pens” on the highway itself and watch the fireworks over the Hudson River — along with about 2 million other people. The fireworks were awesome, but sitting there on the hard ground and having something wet get all over our towel and us was not so nice…nor was trying to get back by subway. That said, we had a really nice day and night.

Today, Monday, Julian was happy to get back to dance class at ABT and to see all his friends. He is very aware that the program is half over and time is running short. He wishes it would last longer, especially now that he is feeling good. He and three of the boys and one or two girls are the first in line each day (there about 45 minutes before they are allowed into the building to begin the trek up four flights of stairs — they aren’t allowed to take the elevator).

We are considering going to Michelle Dorrance’s tap class tonight. We hate to do a hard class early in the week, but we feel the pressure of our time here coming to an end. I wrote an article about Michelle and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Chloe Arnold for Dance Spirit magazine a while ago; they are all in Jason Samuels Smith’s “Charlie’s Angel’s” show. Jason considers these three female tappers the best out there…better even than some of the men. I’d love to have Julian tap with her and to meet her face to face. I’m trying to set up a private with her as well… She’s not on the road with Stomp anymore but performing right here in NYC — in fact just about five blocks away from where we are staying. So, I think Julian and I will go see the show, even though we’ve seen it before. (I wonder if she can get us good tickets…or get Julian backstage to meet the cast?)

Tomorrow is Julian’s 15th birthday! I got two for one tickets to Hair…yes, Hair. What a birthday present…full frontal nudity, references to drugs, profanity, and implied sexual acts. Ah, well, it’s all about the education, right? If he wants to be on Broadway one day, he’ll have to know that he, too, might have to get up in front of an audience baring it all (meaning sans dance belt). Even Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, bared all in his role in Equus. Plus, we have tickets to see Pilobolus, the Connecticut-based company that is known to perform at least half naked. So…call me a bad mom. Maybe I am. I’m probably not showing him anything he hasn’t seen before — or won’t see behind the scenes at a ballet or other dance production anyway (if not on the stage itself).

And with that, I’ll sign off for now. I have a ton of editing and writing work to do, which is making it possible right now for us to see these show! I need to get us tickets to West Side Story next…the only other big dance production other than Billy Elliot, which we see at the end of the month.

(Oh, Julian texted me last week to say he’d had his best day ever at ABT: great jazz class, super partnering class, and 20 minutes in the studio after class messing around with David Alvarez, aka Tony Award-winning “Billy Elliot” himself! Now the ABT summer intensive girls are texting Julian asking for introductions since he is David’s “friend.”)

More in a few days…

Two weeks down, four to go…

Julian is sad that the weeks are flying by. He’s completed two weeks already and has just four to go. However, they are definitely taking their toll on him. I’d recommend that everyone – girls and boys alike – really get in shape for a summer intensive like the American Ballet Theatre six-weeks in New York. It’s grueling, especially if you don’t normally dance seven hours a day (in humid, hot conditions). It also makes a difference if you don’t normally give 150 percent in your classes but you feel pushed to do so once at the intensive – both by the calibre of teachers and students.

After a day at home sleeping off a night of stomach upset, Julian went back to the intensive only to find himself sick again at the end of the day. He managed to throw up just once and then hobbled through watching the ABT performance of Swan Lake. We did, however, have to take taxis there and back. Once home, he suddenly got hungry and at the rest of the soup I’d made for him and then slept for 10 hours and woke up hungry.

While there we ran into a former Teen Dance Company artistic director, and a current master class teacher, professor at Buffalo State University in New York and choreographer for TDC (who will also be teaching at the upcoming TDC summer intensive), Carlos Jones, and he commented, “This is how you are supposed to feel.” This was after we asked him to come down to Julian’s seat at the Metropolitan Opera House to see Julian, who could not bring himself to move from the spot without feeling sick! (I guess that made us feel a bit better, although we haven’t heard of anyone else feeling this way. Of course, Julian is coming from a very dry climate – California – and Carlos said the humidity would be a tough climate change for him.)

I promised some more accurate information on the levels at ABT. They are from lowest to highest: yellow, red, blue, green, violet, aqua, indigo. Green and below are intermediate and everything from violet and above is advanced. The boys of all levels have men’s history and conditioning classes together. Otherwise, they are separated. So the intermediates, for instance, have partnering and men’s class together.

Julian is actually very satisfied with his level. He wanted to be in green but when he saw how good the boys in green were, he knew he was in the right level. Plus, the boys in green spend a fair amount of time with the boys in blue. In fact, Julian has friends in green, and they all seem to hang out together and help each other and teach each other things. Julian sometimes knows something a fellow green dancer doesn’t know and vice versa, so it works out well.

As for competition, I assume the boys all push to do better than the next, but at least at the intermediate level, the boys are friendly and nice and don’t seem to let competition get in the way of freindship.

Julian really adores his classes at ABT. In particular, he is getting a lot out of the partnering classes. This is the first chance he’s had to really work on ballet partnering. He hasn’t done much “guy stuff” in the men’s class, but he likes the camaraderie of being with all the boys. Technique classes are enjoyable also, and his choreography class, which is a jazz piece set to Elton John music, he says is awesome.

All in all, the classes, while tiring, are improving him already. He says he’s much better after just two weeks in New York.

As for his foot, which is better after one day off this week, the best I can do is to relate what chiropractor George Russell wrote to the physical therapist at ABT:

Julian appears to have a chronic sprain of the left anterior portion of the deltoid ligament of the ankle. It’s tender to the touch and hurts when he lands from jumps. the posterior part and the spring ligament appear fine. He’s pronated and in his barre work I coached him to even the two malleoli and get his weight a little more onto the heel, balanced inside to outside. I gave him a different foot exercise — lifting and spreading the toes, looking at the balanced malleoli and lifted arch in the mirror, and then letting the toes down without losing the alignment. He was doing doming over a tennis ball and resistance band work, which didn’t allow him to pay close attention to form and talar positioning.

Adjusting and icing the foot has helped, as it has in the past. Two days off will help as well. Julian does not plan to dance over the weekend. We had hopes of using the weekends for dance classes, but at least right now, he’s way too tired and needs the weekends to recover.

Tomorrow we go to see Marymount Manhattan and to find out about it’s dance program. We’ll get a tour from a TDC alumni.

Julian will be staying with another dancer and his mom for five days next week while I’m at a conference. I pray he stays healthy while I’m away! I really hate going at this point, but I can’t get out of it now. Hopefully it will all go smoothly. I will instruct him to drink lots of Gatorade and to use the packets of electrolytes that I have purchased at Whole Foods as well as better tasting Emergen-C packets. He’ll get much more sleep at their place, and it’s air conditioned. So, hopefully he’ll be okay. They do go to Broadway Dance Center twice a week to tap, but I told him not to tap if he doesn’t feel up to it. He can just watch. Or he can take part of the class.

Ugh…my nervous, worried mother is setting in. Why did I ever think I could leave him here in the city without being a wreck? If he hadn’t gotten sick this week, I’d probably be fine with it, but now… Okay, positive, creative thinking: It will be just fine. He’ll be just fine. I’ll let you know when I get back in a week.

ABT Summer Intensive Takes Its Toll on My Boy

Okay, well, I guess the New York Times article I read about the boy who went to the American Ballet Theatre summer intensive and suffered from shin splints and such painted a correct picture…or we’ve just hit some bad luck and made some bad choices. Julian is a week and a half into the ABT summer intensive himself and on Monday he slightly injured his left foot and tonight he has an upset stomach.

The slightly injured foot definitely comes from overuse and his tendency to pronate. (Remember, boys, think about this!) The chiropractor here in New York, George Russell, is a former dancer, and after he watched Julian do a few things, like plie, he saw exactly how Julian was straining his foot. Of course, he also has jammed his heel with jumps. I’ve been taught to adjust the heel, and that is helping, as is icing.

As for mistakes…well…First, we went off to a tap class with Jared Grimes at Broadway Dance Center last night knowing that Julian’s foot was not 100 percent. Also, he’d just danced 7 hours. He took a tap class at Broadway Dance Center last week, but it was nowhere near as strenuous. So, we didn’t help the foot, nor did we help Julian’s general state of fatigue.

And he is fatigued, let me tell you. He’s better this week, but last Friday after his first full week was over, he couldn’t lift his arms and he could hardly walk up the subway steps. His shoulders were sore to the touch!

The, second mistake, Julian didn’t drink enough water today. The studios are extremely hot, he says, and after lunch he began to feel nautious. He didn’t tell me this, however, and came home to eat some things he shouldn’t have eaten. And then he ate his salad at dinner but nothing else — which didn’t really help, even though it was healthy. Needless to say, not long afterwards he began throwing up. I hope it is a simple case of heat stroke and he’ll feel better in the morning and won’t have to miss classes.

I guess we won’t be doing any dancing this weekend…I think we’ll take it easy and go see some dance instead.

We didn’t get tickets to the ABT performance last weekend, because it conflicted with a trip to see his grandmother, who lives an hour outside of Manhattan. He failed to get the student tickets for Swan Lake, which opened this week, but I might just buy some.

We did go see In The Heights last Friday. It was awesome if you like hip hop and rap music. The dancing was really tremendous. The best of the dancers, a really classic hip hopper, told Julian it was great he was attending ABT. He said, “I went to Ailey and it changed my life.”

We met one of the young Simba’s from The Lion King while at Broadway Dance Center last week. He was sweet and polite and humble. He thought Julian’s tapping was awesome; he had just finished taking a beginner tap class. We saw Kiril Kulish leaving the theater after a performance, although we haven’t yet seen Billy Elliott. And Julian met David Alvarez at ABT, where he is taking some of the summer intensive classes but not all. Julian refrained from talking to him about Billy Elliott, since everyone else was doing so.

All in all, with the exception of the hurt foot and the upset tummy, it’s been a pretty good almost-two-weeks for Julian. He loves the ABT program. He’s made some friends with the guys both in blue and green levels as well as in yellow. He enjoys all his classes. He loves the partnering class and the boys class. He enjoys the teachers. He’s enormously glad he came, and he’s learned a ton in less than two weeks.

It’s been pretty good for me too (as long as I leave out some some details, like stopped up sinks, no TV reception which prevents us from watching So You Think You Can Dance, and me falling down the stairs to the apartment and twisting my knee and ankle).

Next time: How Julian feels about his level, info on his classes, his relationship with the boys, and what exactly is wrong with his foot!

Does Your Son Tap? Keep His Feet Healthy!

I recently wrote an article for Dance Teacher magazine on how to keep tappers’ feet healthy. Previously, I wrote an article for them on how to keep dancers’ feet healthy, but tappers are a bit unique; they use their feet in more ways than most dancers, and their feet take a lot more pounding as well.

While I can’t share the information in that article here – you’ll have to purchase it when it hits the newsstands in a week or two – I can direct you to a little bit of  “overflow copy” they couldn’t use in the magazine and posted instead on line. It actually contains a really essential exercise to help create a cushion for all that impact a tapper’s feet are subject to and how to stretch – something a lot of tappers (especially boys) don’t do before dancing – to avoid injury. (Also, the exercise, called “doming,” was recommended for ALL dancers by the experts I interviewed for my story on keeping dancers’ feet healthy…hint, hint.)

To read this web exclusive, click here.

Check back here for some great information from ballet superstar Duncan Cooper. I interviewed him for a whole hour, and he gave me some super information…enough for at least three posts! I’ll be transcribing the tape and writing, and I hope to post something in the next few days.

Boys Working Together at NYCDA

I am happy to report that Julian had a blast at the NYCDA convention despite his reluctance to go. He loved the teachers, the choreography and the competition.

I had a blast, although I was only there on Saturday night for the competition and on Sunday, and here’s why: I had such fun watching the boys prepare for and perform their “part” in the ballet class taught by Duncan Cooper. He had choreographed a special part just for the boys, which Julian thought was totally awesome — both the choreography and the fact that the boys had a part of their own. And during the class on Saturday, the boys congregated at the back of the room and began rehearsing together. They worked and worked and worked…and helped each other. It was not an individual effort but a team effort. Yes, they were each going to be performing the choreography as a solo act — and later auditioning alone (well…in a group but each as an individual), but they practiced it together as if it were a group performance. And that made their performance really something special. Some of the boys even shook hands at the end as they stood at the edge of the stage to allow the judges to write down their numbers (or not). It was awesome.

I commend Duncan Cooper….and the boys. Well done!

Also, I was thrilled that Julian seemed to have found something within that changed his dancing this weekend. He used his upper body better and was much more expressive with his dancing. He even said that he felt so much better in general about his performance. In fact, here told me several times how happy he was because of the way he had danced.  He felt he had made a huge step forward in his ability. He did receive a scholarship and felt proud to have been complimented by two teachers, but he said this was nothing compared to what he himself felt about what he had achieved. Those words, and his sense of pleasure with him self and with his ability, did this mother’s heart good. He finally realized what really matters — and it’s not that piece of paper he had in his hand when he came off stage (and that he may never even use). He even said that the scholarship really didn’t matter to him; he just felt great about how he had danced.

However, Julian hurt his heel dancing on the hard ballroom floor. He has had a problem with his heel before, mostly while he was in the ballet program at Ballet San Jose but not so much since he hasn’t been doing just ballet. The chiropractor said he strained it and should take it easy this week. No jumping or leaping.

Those conventions are really hard on the kids for that reason — the flooring at those hotels is really not suitable for spending hours dancing. I hear all kinds of stories about kids who end up with sore joints and backs afterwards. I suppose there is no where else to hold them, though. Where else could you fit so many kids into a room to dance?

On another subject, I had a great idea — don’t know why I didn’t think of it before — for this blog. For my other blog, www.writenonfictioninnovember.wordpress.com, I ask experts to write guest blogs for me during the month of November. I usually comment on the subject, too, but they offer advice and information. I thought, given that I’m not an expert on dance per se — I’m not even really a parenting expert although I have two kids and two step kids — I’d occasionally ask a dance exert to write a blog for me or to let me interview them. You see, my expertise comes from my experience as a dance mom raising a dancing son and from my research as a journalist and author into the lives of male dancers and into dancing in general. But I’ve never said I have all the answers. I just pose some questions, say what I think and maybe too often tell you what’s going on in my son’s dancing life — and in my life as the mom of a dancing boy.

So, to avoid some of the drivel (which I write when there isn’t much going on)…and to stay with my new focus on bigger topics…I thought I’d let the experts do a little talking now and then. In light of that, this past weekend I asked Joe Lanteri of NYCDA to guest blog for me a few times. (I’m not sure about the topics yet, but I will likely pose the convention choreography one to him.) I also asked NYCDA ballet instructor Duncan Cooper to either write a blog or let me interview him.

If anyone has suggestions on great male dance teachers that I should contact that you feel would be willing and available to write a blog or chat with me by phone, please let me know. If there are male dance teachers — or professional male dancers or older male dancers who feel they have wisdom to share — reading this blog, please contact me as well. And, as always, email me or post comments detailing the types of issues you have with your sons’ dancing or about men/boys who dance, so I can get these experts to address them. You can contact me at cpywrtcom@aol.com.

Recently there have been some people upset with my blog’s focus. I hope everyone will be happy with the new focus. I only want to serve those who read this blog. If you have suggestions on ways for me to improve what I’m doing, please feel free to contact me at cpywrtcom@aol.com.

Learning How to “Handle” a Partner

With the Second Stage show put to bed, Teen Dance Company has turned its attention to choreography for its big show, the spring Concert, which will be it’s 10-year anniversary event. The kids spent six hours in the studio on Sunday this past weekend working on their first piece of choreography. Each of the 4-5 numbers will be about 30 minutes in length.  Julian said the choreography, created on the spot by Mark Foehringer, was difficult, fun and inspired.

Julian told me today that he felt badly for “hurting” a fellow dancer — another girl — during the last Second Stage performance. Seems some mishap happened during where his interaction with her caused her to hurt her ankle or leg. He didn’t actually lift her, but she sort of runs into him and he pushes her away, and he pushed her a bit too hard…or something like that. I guess it’s a learning experience. Boys do need to learn how to “handle” the girls with whom they partner, and they need to develop some finesse. I guess he’s still developing that! 

I’ve been enjoying working on an article about several teen dance companies (generic term used here). It’s interesting to see how some of them are being run and what they offer…It’s nice not to be so absorbed in the workings of just one company.

More Opportunties My Dancing Son Can’t Take Advantage Of…

Okay, the Teen Dance Company Second Stage performance has been put to bed, quite successfully I might add. I was quite impressed, if I do say so myself, with all the kids’ performances and with the student choreography in particular. I think it is amazing that the studio offers a student choreography track, and it’s great that even a few of the students take advantage of that opportunity. Their numbers had such variety and scope. It really was amazing.

I thought Julian looked pretty good,, but he’s my son. (I can actually be quite critical, if you want to know the truth.) He was better on Saturday night; by Sunday he was tired. Plus, at the Friday night tech rehearsal he hit his head hard enough for Mark Foehringer to be worried that he had a concussion. Of course, I was not told about the severity of this incident until Saturday night when Mark told me he couldn’t sleep on Friday night, because he was so worried about Julian. He said he almost called me at 3 a.m. to tell me to wake Julian up and check on him. Great…a little late, I thought.

Julian told me he had hit his head and had a headache afterwards and a little trouble remembering some dance combinations after that, but I really didn’t think much about it. Next time I’ll pay closer attention. He just didn’t make it seem serious, and he gets minor injuries like that a lot.

I was pleased to have a new blog reader who lives nearby show up with her son to watch the Saturday night show. That was a real thrill for me, although they left before I could talk to them when the show concluded. (Hi Sarah!)

Julian had Monday off to rest and then his Dad and I had to become the mean parents and keep him home from TDC on Tuesday when we discovered some missed assignments from the last few weeks. (He told us he had changed…handled his schoolwork…Don’t ever believe your kids. I hate to sound distrustful and jaded, but teenagers just don’t always tell you the truth. They tell you what they think you want to hear, what gets you off their back and what they want you to believe.) Then, I discovered more missed assignments, so we cut out going to jazz at Studio 10 and yesterday I drove all the way to TDC, went in and talked to Mark Foehringer, and then took Julian home. You see, I feel down on my job of Big Bad Disciplinarian. I didn’t want Julian kicked out of a spring concert piece of ballet choreography, and Mark was running a rehearsal last night. He told me it was a good night for Julian to miss rehearsal, if he was going to miss, though, so we turned around and went home.  We’ll see if missing three days of dance made any impression on him at all.  After this, missing class and rehearsal will make a bigger difference…

As for those missed opportunities, it seems that Julian’s commitment to TDC is going to prevent him from having a role in Los Gatos Ballet’s production of Copellia, which he was asked to be in. He really wants that role — maybe more to hang out with the girls than to do the dancing , but the tech rehearsal and performance are on the Thursday and Friday right before a full week of tech rehearsals for TDC’s big Concert in May. So, Mark  has initially said, “No.” Julian was bummed.

Then, he was going to be in the Studio 10 spring show, performing only in the jazz III class’ number, but that show is on June 13. School ends on June 12 and American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive starts on June 15. We figure that we might have to get on a plane on June 13. At the least, we’ll be busy getting ready to go to New York, so this performance won’t be happening either, much to Julian’s dismay. That means he’ll be attending class between now and May and learning the choreography, but at some point he will not be able to continue with it because he’ll be sort of in the way. At least, he won’t have a spot in the number.

By the way, yesterday Julian’s dad registered him (and paid the nonrefundable deposit) for the ABT summer intensive. So, I guess that is a done deal. We have half the dance world and the magazine publishing world and my old Syracuse University friends looking for sublets for us in NYC! We have not yet notified the camp that he isn’t coming…some little bit of fear on our part that should something happen his summer will go totally to pot.

Sorry I haven’t written more this week. I’ve been busy writing for dance magazines. I finished that piece for Dance Teacher on getting boys into dance class and keeping them there, and now I’m working on another for them on how to keep tap dancers’ feet healthy. (I wrote a similar story for them on dancers feet in general last year.) I’ve also been working on a story for Dance Spirit magazine on several teen dance companies, including TDC.

What Benji Schwimmer Says about Dance Injuries

Boys who have, like my son, suffered time off of dance while they recuperated from dance-related injuries, should know they are not alone. Even the best dancers get injured, and they, too, hate sitting one the side while everyone else jumps and turns and pirouettes across the floor.

Sometimes it helps to hear what someone you respect has to say about the obstacles you face. That’s the premise of the book I’m writing about mentoring boys who want to become professional dancers. So, here are a few words from swing dancing champion Benji Schwimmer, the 2007 winner of So You Think You Can Dance, who told me during a two-hour interview that dancers get lots of injuries along the way to stardom and that these always make them feel depressed and helpless. Despite this fact, there are ways to move through these negative feelings and come out of an injury better than ever.

If your son is injured or has been, share what Benji has to say:

“Probably one of the most difficult times in my life was right after I had won
the United States Swing Dance Championships with my cousin, Heidi (Groskreutz)…I was teaching a class at a college, and I ripped my knee into shreds. I had all these bookings and shows planned throughout the year that I had to cancel. I was depressed beyond recognition. I thought, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize how fragile the human body is until that moment and how scary it is to be injured.’

That was a tough time. Eventually I had a surgery and had to get back on my feet and reclaim my swing title the next year. But I was out for seven and a half months, and that was definitely a very trying time in my life. I had to get back into shape and do therapy, but I came back like a bat out of hell.”

And you know what? He not only came back he reclaimed his swim champion title as well.

I reminded my son of this story when he was feeling upset up the recital and ballet rehearsals he was missing because of his hurt foot. He was concerned that he might be told my his instructors that he couldn’t perform. I told him that he simply needed to continue stretching and strengthening as much as he could until he could get out on the dance floor again and that he needed to continue going to class and marking the choreography to ensure that he would know the dance when it came time to actually perform it. And I told him he would have to work hard when he could actually dance again to get up to speed and totally in shape. If he did these things, surely he would be on stage with the other dancers when the curtain went up for both events.

It all comes down to how badly these young male dancers want that goal, how hard they are willing to work. (Unfortunately, often their age stops them from working hard enough, which deters them in many ways. But that’s the subject of another post.) If like, Benji, they will do what it takes to get themselves back onto the dance floor in tip top shape, they too can “win” whatever prize they desire. It helps, however, to know that someone understands their frustration.

The director of the ballet school, Lise LaCour, has offered to work with Julian herself, or to have Julian’s male instructor, Peter Brandenhoff, give Julian private lessons (for free) when he returns to dancing to help him get in shape. That will also boost his confidence, improve his mood and help him get back up to speed. I had already suggested paying for a few private lessons at Studio 10 with Keith Banks to get him ready for the recital (even though those lessons are very expensive).

As a parent, we have to do what we have to do to help these boys. They seem so rough and tough, yet they are really very fragile and sensitive.

I’ll keep you posted. One more week and then hopefully the boot comes off.