Injury - repeat year?

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carriecrafts
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Injury - repeat year?

Post by carriecrafts »

DD is in 2nd year of her degree and hasn't danced since summer due to injuries! Whether she can dance after Christmas will depend on what is found by MRI.

She's fine with her singing/voice/drama work but is applying for extenuating circumstances to delay her dance assessments (university procedure). I am wondering whether it would be best to repeat the year though. Has anyone had experience of missing so much training or of repeating a year?
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2dancersmum
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Re: Injury - repeat year?

Post by 2dancersmum »

I'm so sorry to hear of your DD's injury problems and current situation. I hope she gets a good result from her MRI and is able to dance again soon.
Re: whether or not to repeat the year - my advice would be not to rush into any decision and to keep lines of communication with her college/uni fully open. They will have experience of this type of thing before and will be able to guide or advise you in terms of your DDs training and levels, affects on funding etc but ultimately I suspect it will be your DDs decision and not an easy one to make. We have no personal experience but I do know of several of DDs friends from various years and at various colleges that have faced such issues and outcomes have varied - as has the amount of assistance from the colleges. Decisions also are obviously affected by how/if the injury affects your qualification and readiness for auditions for the real world. Sometimes, keeping the communication going and waiting to see can be best. Some of those we have known with longer term injuries -
girl 1 - injured towards end of 1st year. Time out to recover but never returned.
girl 2 - injured winter term of 2nd year and off dance until the summer. Asked to repeat 2nd year and agreed but never returned. Did end up performing professionally a few years later after continuing with dance and vocal classes locally.
girl 3 - completed 2 years but with constant injuries. advised to change course as the dance element was too much for her. Started again in year 1 at same uni but on less physically demanding course.
girl 4 - frequent injuries including a broken leg and two broken ankles and a recurring shoulder problem that required surgery. Deferred all dance assessments in first two years but managed to do end of year productions. Asked to repeat 2nd year as she had missed so much but she did not want to. Special arrangements made for her to be assessed during holidays and allowed to continue into year 3. Left at the Easter having secured a professional contract and has been in work ever since.
girl 5 - missed most of final year though injury. Assessments deferred until end of year and pieces choreographed around her for performance assessments so that she was able to graduate with her year but remained an extra year at the college to take class and start auditioning as although she graduated she was not yet fully recovered and industry ready.

So you can see the paths taken have been very different.
FelixGirl
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Re: Injury - repeat year?

Post by FelixGirl »

DD had a similar experience. Injured in her first half term.......she continued dancing initially as she was misdiagnosed with a muscular injury (it was actually a slipped disc). She was off dancing until the summer term and then only back to half classes. College offered her the chance to retake her first year, but she wasn't in a great place mentally by this time and she was adamant that she wanted to continue into second year if possible. She did manage to complete her first year, college allowed her to defer her first year assessments until the beginning of second year and she passed them all. She did struggle through second year... but managed to scrape through her second year assessments with the help of some great friends. She went into third year in very good spirits thinking that everything was resolved, but found that her reputation over the previous two years put her bottom of the pile when it came to any performances/Agent showcases and she found that incredibly hard. In fact the very worst thing to watch has been the complete destruction of her confidence in herself!

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel......obviously College was not a good experience for DD at all...but I am incredibly proud of her because she was determined to graduate and she performed brilliantly in her final show......and she has worked since graduating (thanks to some very lovely contacts who do believe in her). She is very conscious of her physical limitations now...but they don't stop her....she has just learnt to listen to her body! She is just starting to audition again.....and is really starting to gain her confidence again!
carriecrafts
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Re: Injury - repeat year?

Post by carriecrafts »

FelixGirl thanks for sharing that, sorry to read your dd has had a tough time but glad she is regaining confidence. You are absolutely right that the hardest part is seeing them suffer emotionally.

2dancersmum thanks for the stories, interesting how different people and colleges tackle things. There are always so many factors at play.

At the moment DD is saying she wants to repeat the year. She is quite down and frustrated. She had a brilliant 1st year, got 1sts in all her modules and a feature in the end of year show so she doesn't want this 2nd year to influence how much promotion she gets during 3rd year showcases. We'll just have to wait for the MRI results to see whether she needs surgery to repair her elbow. If she does I think she'll be repeating the year, if not she may change her mind if she gets back on form quickly.
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