Despite my focus on positive thinking and strong belief that our thoughts are creative, I’ve found myself falling into a fear of Julian injuring himself. After all, he’s doing more than he did last year and I’m confronted with dancers getting injured.
You need only watch Fox’s 2010So You Think You Can Dance to see contestants dropping like flies. First Alex Wong tore his Achilles tendon, then Ashley was hurt and left last week. This week Billy Bell hurt his knee and won’t be dancing. I haven’t heard yet if he’ll be back or not.
Plus, last Sunday Julian and I went to the Joyce Soho for a pleasant evening of watching a Brooklyn-based all-female hip hop crew, Decadancetheatre, perform, and in the last number on of the best dancer’s knees gave out on her. She went over to the side and began crying. (We could all hear her.) One of the dancers helped her off the stage, and she never returned. The crew completed the performance without her, including bows.
Luckily, the movement Dwight has been choreographing in Julian’s extra classes at Complexions three nights a week don’t involve big jumps or tricks. That makes me feel a bit better. Last weekend he didn’t dance at all.
However, last year he did only one class during the week, usually tap, which involved a totally different type of movement from ballet. And on the weekend he did hip hop and jazz and other non-ballet-related classes. This year, he seems to only want to do contemporary and ballet. That brings up my “stuff” again.
On a more positive note, Desmond Richardson was at the Complexions intensive class last night along with Dwight Rhoden and Julian had a great time. The previous two classes were very difficult and Julian had the impression that Dwight was less pleased with his performance. (Well, he is just 16 in an 18+profesional-level class I keep reminding him.) This class was a bit easier for him to get his body and mind around. He got all the choreography down without a problem even though everyone else had learned it the night before, and Desmond took him under his wing, offering him corrections after each run through.
I, personally, thought this was perfect…and wonderful…given that Desmond asked him to be in the class despite his age. What an opportunity and honor–to have Desmond work with him in that way! And he’ll get to perform with the Level 3 class in the final show, which he’s excited about.
One more week left of the ABT intensive. Things are winding down but gearing up. I always feel like they get a bit out of control for me about now. There’ s not enough time to get my work done and handle Julian’s dance schedule. I’m exhausted and need a vacation.
I’m glad it was cooler today. I opened the windows! Whoo hoo! I was still hot, though.
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