Re: Extreme Flexibility May Hinder Dancers: Study

[Guest guest]

RE: Extreme Flexibility May Hinder Dancers: Study

By Amy Norton

Monday, March 8, 2004

Hi All

While elements of this may be true, I have to differ on some of it. If one

builds up their musculature, which dancers often work on very diligently, then

it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I have the Hypermobile Type of EDS & I

have 2 children, who have both been seen by Dr. Petros Tsipouras 3 times,

twice in his office in Connecticut & he is insistent that neither of them have

EDS

or anything like it. My daughter is 23 & is a professional dancer & my son

is 20 & is a hockey player & neither of them have ever had any joints related

injuries. My daughter can do just about any kind of dance, but must say that

ballet is her least favorite. Though she did it & did a lot of it, to build up

her musculature. She does not have the natural inborn flexibility that many

professional ballet dancers do, but what she does have, she has developed by

many, many years of work & practice. I was just very fortunate when I had both

of my children, having had them both before I ever had any symptoms of EDS &

I am an RN & almost feel bad that I had never even heard of EDS before I

developed EDS symptoms. Though, they greatly increased after my pregnancies.

My daughter has danced & has been very musically talented since she was very

little & has danced all day, taking & teaching classes, since she was a little

girl & went professional & became equity at the age of 17, after she attended

an open audition for, the then live show of the, Rugrats, A Live Adventure.

She went on 3 different tours with them, for over 15 months, across the

country & in Europe. She wound up getting the lead role of Tommy Pickles,

having

surpassed thousands of people who auditioned on both coasts, even though the

entire cast, except for her, was all adult. She had just auditioned as a

practice, for herself, for her upcoming college auditions & wound up shocked,

with

the lead role. Needless to say, the experience was awesome & she danced & sang

a grueling schedule & thankfully never had an injury, nor missed a

performance. She is now almost finished with college, having changed her major

to

education, as one in the performing arts would have been redundant. I hope some

of

you can see this picture, as you can see the flexibility that she has, as well

as her amazing ability to jump, at all of 5 ft. tall. So, there are

exceptions & I believe that muscle development is the key to injury prevention.

Just

my 2 cents. Here's Thea, doing a " Flying Dutchman " Poor thing, I made her do

it 4 times in a row, so I could catch her in the air, on film, after she had

danced for 45 minutes straight. This is the best shot I got & she was already

relaxing, on the way down.

So, as with EDS, oftentimes, the appropriate type of exercise, will often

help prevent injury, under the right circumstances. I am surely not advocating

that we, with EDS go out and dance, but Thea does not have it, so it is said,

by what I would consider an EDS expert. But, she has developed flexibility.

Take care all & don't worry, you won't see ME doing this!