I was pointing my toes wrong!

Hey everyone,

I am almost done with my first semester at AMDA and am really feeling the pain. My hips are hurting sooo much today and have been for the past couple of days. Please say a prayer for me that the pain is nothing serious. I will probably go see a doctor this week or next week. Anyway, I can't believe that my first semester is almost over! Its crazy. I have learned so much this semester. My teachers have properly showed me how to dance without contracting injuries. I never knew all the things I was doing wrong until I came to a school where teachers really paid close attention to their students. When I first started the semester, I was recovering from achilles tendonitis. This was something that had started while dancing a few months prior to attending AMDA. I went to Physical Therapy over the summer and was cleared by my therapist to dance just 2 days before starting school. Whew! God is so good! But not too long after starting, the tendonitis intensified. It was so painful to do anything that required me to be on my toes, or point my toes. Which is pretty much everything in dance lol! So I thought I was screwed. But being at AMDA showed me the reason why I had gotten tendonitis in the first place. I was pointing my toes wrong!!! Isnt that insane??? How can someone who has been dancing for 20 years all of a sudden just find out when they are 23 that they have been pointing their toes wrong. I was also doing my releve wrong (going on my tippy toes). My releve wasn't high enough and I had no idea. None of my other dance teachers ever noticed these errors. Shows how much they really paid attention to their students. And its crazy because the fact that I was pointing my toes wrong was something I actually discovered on my own from listening to the things my teahcers at AMDA were saying about pointing our toes. I then asked a few friends to show me how they were pointing their toes and I realized I was curling my toes too much and actually straining the back of my heel. Crazy! So then one day I went up to one of my Ballet teachers and asked her to verify if I was poiting my toes wrong and she said yes! She said no wonder you have achilles tendonitis! The way you are pointing your foot is straining your achilles. It was unbelieveable! But this situation has motivated me to make sure that when I open my dance studio that I pay close attention to all of my students. I could have avoided this completely but I am a strong believer in everything happens for a reason and I know that experiencing this I will be able to help many dancers in the future. I found a new therapist in NY who has helped me to tackle Tendonitis and now I am almost completely relieved from it! I'm so happy. God is AMAZING! Well that's it for now. Time to get ready for my final demonstrations this week. Until next time :)