As the winter season is approaching, I think back to when I was a dancer in "The Nutcracker". During that production, we did not have athletic trainers, as our production was so small. But did you ever think you could be an athletic trainer for the New York Ballet Company? Or Cirque del Soliel? Well, you can! Those major productions have athletic trainers. I want to share with you my experience of being an athletic trainer in a non-traditional setting. One summer, I was the ATC for the shows at Hershey Park. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun, but I also knew it would be hard work. These performers, though it wasn't Broadway, were just as great as any performer out there. The injuries I saw were a lot of overuse injuries, especially in the knees, hips, and back. It was an interesting field to be in because they didn't exactly have back ups for them. There was maybe 1 back up performer per show. Which means... they could NOT get hurt. If they did, they needed to get back out there right away. No matter what the injury was, they were going to dance and perform. I saw injuries from sprained ankles to fractured ribs. It was a broad spectrum. I quickly learned how to deal with these injuries so they can keep performing. Usually, I told the captain of the show that they needed to re-block the show so a certain performer didn't have to do hard dance moves or jump onto a box or something of the sort. I also learned very quickly how I was not their main concern. These people were trying to make it big. If I got in their way, they would let me know about it. Coming from a high school and being able to talk to my athletes about the dangers of continuing to play on certain injuries did not translate well to the performing arts world. There was some fighting, as there is with all injuries, but I was not the person with the last call... The performers were. It was an experience I'll never forget.
Has anyone else worked a non-traditional job that you would like to share about? Leave a comment below! And below, there is an article about athletic trainers working with dancers.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/18/university-athletic-training-students-work-with-da/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS
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