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broken bones
Fractures to the shaft of the 5th metatarsal are often referred to as "dancer’s fractures.
No prizes for guessing which morris dancer currently has her foot in a air boot... (Looks rather like something you'd wear to walk on the moon...)
Apparently, the fast spins in dances put a lot of strain on the long thin bone between the little toe and the ankle. That's the 5th metatarsal.
I went over trying to correct a turn where I realised I was going the wrong way. Fell (not sure if it was before or after I broke the bone) and hit the floor (albeit with a slight reflexive roll. I assumed I'd sprained my ankle, and as I had a very bad sprained ankle five or six years ago, I did everything right this time. I'm glad to say that I didn't try to walk on it. With the help of my wonderful fellow dancers, I got to a chair (Rest), found a bottle of some kind of drink in the freeze compartment of the fridge in the hall) (Ice), raided the first aid kit for a bandage (Compression) and propped my foot up on a chair (Elevate) RICE
Got to the doctor the following morning, who suspected an ankle fracture. Down the hospital at 2pm, through X-ray and various other departments at truly amazing speed - it was a quiet time of day, and we didn't need anything major, but had a diagnosed break from the X-ray. But 4pm, we were heading for home with air boot, crutches, instructions and the assurance of a follow up appointment next week!
And lovely friendly staff throughout. When the NHS works well, it can be like magic. (I hope our next government will help the NHS work like this more often)
So, I've been spending a lot of time with my foot raised up on a pile of cushions on top of a stool, and icing it. I'm allowed to take the boot off when icing and also in bed. I'm allowed to do a little bit of walking, but no more than a few minutes at a time.
It should heal up without surgery as long as I follow orders, but I'm probably looking at 2-3 months before normality. I'll be able to walk on it quite a while before it will be safe to dance on. I see physiotherapy in my future, but I've had lots of practice at doing what physios tell me :)
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Oh no! I'm sorry to hear you're damaged, but very impressed with you taking all the correct action to stop it from getting worse. It's so common for all the morris dancers I know to tough it out and keep dancing on it, and then completely bugger it up and end up permanently injured. I hope your 2-3 months pass quickly and are closer to 2 than to 3.
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I've already cancelled a longsword workshop with the local scouts. We can do it later in the year when I'm fully better.
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My recommendation for the Ice part is getting a second hand ice machine. They work SO much better than actual ice because they circulate ice water. The water doesn't freeze the skin like ice does and because it circulates you can get the body part really cold and stop the inflammation. When I looked them up on Ebay a couple of years ago they were a very reasonable amount. Be sure you get a pad that will wrap around your foot easily. I don't think the bands made for your back would be small enough!
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I used them for a couple of days, and they brought the swelling down very effectively. (advice is to use ice for around 20mins three or four times a day for the first 2-3 days after the injury - or at least for this particular injury)
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Definitely! Heh, we had to cancel a talk/workshop with the brownies recently because of Covid, so I imagine they're quite used to it.
How do you like longsword? That's one I've never tried.
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Here's some of the team (including my grandddaughter) dancing 'Elgin' in the summer of '22 - https://youtu.be/osxaKKzBRO0?si=4eae-PEe09U8lNff
This one from a year earlier does have me - in the yellow waistcoat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj2yCT-2FTM&t=44s
Interestingly enough, three of the audience members in that video are now members of the team! (although it was about a year and a half later that they joined)
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That does look like fun, and I love the way the children's workshop shows how difficult it is to get the stars! I often see a side step in and immediately there's a star, but I hadn't quite appreciated the level of skill involved before.
I should look around for Longsword sides around me because that looks like a level of impact that my knees would tolerate, and I do miss dancing out.
Congrats on starting your own side! That is definitely something to be proud of :)
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I'm really proud of the fact that the last workshop I did with scouts had a group that I worked hard with on the lock (breaking the move down into many small steps and - very important - getting them all to check that each stage was correct before rushing onwards) - I asked my group if they felt they could do the final performance on their own.
The decided to go for. Got all three initial moves correct, went for the star - checked - spotted a mistake - corrected it - and got it perfect!
I live for moments like that :)
It is possible to start your own team... I knew nothing about longsword when I began, but there are far more resources available now (Oddly enough, I created a lot of them...). See http://southernstarlongsword.weebly.com/ for helpful notation for dances for three to eight people, sheet music for musicians, and links to videos of particular dances where we have them.
whereabouts do you live? Yorkshire is probably the best place for longsword teams.
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I'm a little miffed with myself that I didn't think about this before I got into belly dance, because as far as I know there aren't any longsword sides around where we live (Cambridgeshire, near Ely) which might have made it easier to start one up. I know several ex-Cotswold and ex-Border dancers with bad knees/hips who might have jumped at a chance to do something a bit lower impact. (Maybe not jumped ;) as that is the problem.)
I might sound them out anyway, because although I quite like being a musician it's still a shame to go to a morris event and not dance at all.
Thank you for the resources! That does look great.
LOL! The last time I taught a dance to a troupe of Brownies, it was a disaster when it went on, as one of the children had last minute nerves and dropped out, meaning everyone else lost their places and it all fell apart. I can hardly blame them for that - it's easy to do even as a veteran, if you're used to doing it with certain people in certain places and suddenly they aren't any more.
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If you do get an interested group together, then you might be able talk me into coming along and running a workshop.
I do so love teaching! And potential new longsword converts would be a real draw.
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I have now mentioned it to a few of the people I know who have recently had to drop out from dancing Border or Cotswold because of knees/hips etc, but (not to generalize too much but) they are men and therefore they are too proud to dance at all if they feel like they can't dance to their own estimate of how good they ought to be. I think this is cutting off your nose to spite your face, but can't really do anything about it. So I think I'll concentrate on the bellydancing for now, and maybe try again in a few years when the pool of potential recruits will have expanded. Thank you though! That would have been awesome! :)
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but there is a possible alternative option. Have you considered having a workshop for all ages and seeing if you get enough interested parties from that?
We have a large overlap with Anonymous Morris - 5 of us belong to both, and you might well get interested 'morris tarts' from other teams.
You could do a mixture of dances in the way Southern Star do - we're a very wide group in terms of age range- 9-65
We have one dance that Chris (our least mobile dancer) can't do, but others have sneaky hacks that allow Trudy and Chris (the two least mobile) to join in, while avoiding the move that they can't physically do.
And many dances are fine for both of them.
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Hm, well... Ely and Littleport Riot Border morris (which I belong to) are having their 40th anniversary this year and haven't yet decided what they want to do to celebrate. I could suggest having a Longsword workshop as part of the festivities? There's an anniversary committee figuring it out at the moment. They might like the suggestion :)
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If anyone has access to a maypole, I teach that as well...
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We have two members in the team with knee trouble, but you can't usually tell. WE cheat by doing 'over the sword' moves starting with the person on one side of them, and ending with the person on the other side - so they can miss out the move, but no one notices!
All other moves are 'knee-friendly'.
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One thing I have found from the belly dancing is that my stamina is still great - I easily keep up with the 20 year olds. So if I were doing something that didn't hurt my joints, I'm probably not as disabled as I thought. Thank you for this conversation and idea, I can feel it giving me a new lease of life as we speak! :)
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So sorry to hear it's still screwed up.
I'm going to be as careful as I possibly can, and hope it recovers...
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I keep over-doing it as well. But I'm not nearly as badly off as you.
I'm lucky - I don't (fingers crossed) need surgery.
But I keep trying to walk too much wearing the walking boot, and then the pain gets a lot worse. But the walking boot is something I can take off when I just want to rest the foot or go to bed, so far less risk of calluses. (But I don't know if they are suitable for use in your case)
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Are there any dances where they need a seated person to dance around?
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