Break a Leg! (Not Really Though)

Hannah Feldhues poses during a dance photoshoot. (Photo by Jen Guy Metcalf)

As the saying goes, the show must go on. But what happens when a performer can’t go on?

For dancers and others in the performing arts, physical health is so important to the ability to practice their art. An injury can be not only devastating but also career-ending. So what happens when an injury puts a roadblock in a dancer’s plans?  

Elon junior Hannah Feldhues has been dancing since she was three. She entered Elon as a dance and marketing double major, intent on pursuing her passion for the art. She had planned on chasing a career performing. Since then, however, an injury has forced her to reassess her plans.

Hannah had a difficult sophomore year in terms of physical health. She first sprained her knee then got a concussion, both of which fortunately healed. However, it was her third injury that had lasting impacts.

The day after she got cleared from her concussion, Hannah was lifting a heavy suitcase into the overhead bin on a plane when she felt something off with her back, but she didn’t think much of it. She continued to carry a heavy backpack around, and soon, that strain on her back grew worse.

The next day, the pain was more apparent. “It was shooting pain that I just had to like, lay down. … I couldn’t even stand or anything because it was hurting so bad,” she said.  

She was later diagnosed with having bulging discs in her spine. This is a condition affecting the gel between the discs of the spine, which can irritate nearby nerves and cause a lot of pain. Her back is still healing a year later, and her ability to dance has been severely affected.

Because dance is so dependent on and demanding of the body, this injury had serious implications for Hannah’s education and career goals. She still had to attend dance classes for the sake of earning credits toward graduation, but her movement was extremely limited.

Her world was shaken by this injury and its implications, and she found that even dance didn’t bring her the same joy it once did.  “It got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it because I felt so upset while I was in class because of the situation that I was in. I was just so frustrated,” she said.

Hannah Feldhues doing what she loves most. (Photo by Jen Guy Metcalf)

In a way, Hannah’s injury consumed her. “It became really unhealthy for me,” she expressed. She said she was under so much pressure to attend and participate in dance classes that her life came to revolve around doing what it took to be able to achieve even limited movement.

Eventually, she made the decision to step away from her dance major and transition it to a minor. For her, this was no easy decision.  “[Dance] was just something that I’ve always done, and I felt like it’s such a big part of who I am as a person,” she said. “It felt like I was losing a part of who I am.”

It has taken time, but Hannah is starting to love dance again. In fact, she said she has learned a lot from having to reevaluate her goals and even her identity without dance. “I can still be me without dance,” she said.  

One major takeaway from Hannah’s experiences with injury is that there are many associated pressures in the dance industry that are over overlooked. She says that before hurting her back, she had never really thought about what would happen if she wasn’t able to dance. 

“It’s so easy to get injured,” she said. “The fact that you are so … reliant on your body is a very hard reality to accept.” 

Hannah even suggested that the topic of injury is kind of taboo, and she is now growing more passionate about opening this conversation for dancers.

“In the performing arts, people don’t really talk about injury that much. Or if they do, they brush it aside.  They don’t want to mention it, or they don’t want to tell people about it. They’re just like, ‘Oh yeah my ankle’s acting up. It’s fine,’ or ‘This is acting up, but it’s fine,’” Hannah said.  

But according to Hannah, it’s not always fine. Performers feeling so much pressure that they fail to address physical pains is a problem Hannah has now set her mind to addressing within the dance community.