My Dance Journey

By Kate Sanches

I have danced for as long as I remember and until I was 6 it was something I did for fun, but when I started competing I put being considered good above finding love in the art. Yes I loved it, but that was only when I was told how good I was or placing well at a competition. In the beginning of my competition years I was doing really well, I was placing high at almost all of my competitions which meant I was happy and I loved the sport. I worked so hard for so long and I burnt myself out, but I couldn't stop now. I had already spent so much of my life working on becoming the best dancer I could so it felt pointless to quit. It was also all I have ever done. I had never tried any other activities.

This all changed when in the summer of 2021 I was practicing my solo for the last nationals of the season which meant the last competition of the season. At the end of this solo I did a jump split and I executed it just fine with no complications all year, but this time my feet didn't hit the ground to help me slide down, so I pulled my hamstring. Pulling my hamstring also caused a part of my hip bone to rub off. The doctors wouldn't let me dance for about a month and those who have pulled a hamstring know how long it takes to heal especially as a dancer because a lot of the moves we do require hamstring flexibility. Even after I was “cleared” to dance I still couldn’t actually dance because my hamstring was in so much pain.

All summer I sat in bed regretting the fact that I took dance for granted and all I wanted was to dance without the pain. After my hamstring was finally getting better and I started dancing again I started to notice extreme back pain all the way across my lower back. I didn’t think much of it so I just ignored it and I had finally been able to dance again so I didn’t want to have to stop again. I finally said something to my mom and so we went to the doctor. I saw countless doctors and got many MRIs and X-Rays and every doctor just said it was normal for dancers. This didn’t feel normal. I couldn't sleep. I could barely go to school. This could not be normal.

Then finally one of my doctors told me I had a stress fracture due to me not having enough core strength because of the rest I had to take when I pulled my hamstring. He told me to go to physical therapy so we tried every physical therapy place in my town and the town over and nothing was helping. I was still in constant pain. 2 years of physical therapy 2 times a week and I was just exhausted. It felt like it was a waste of my time so I stopped going. The last thing we tried was working out, my mom got me a personal trainer and I started working out because the doctors believed I didn't have enough core strength to support my back. Working out plus slowly getting back into dance helped. It was still a really long process and for a while I was still in constant pain, but I needed to get back into dance and so I just pushed through and finally three years later I rarely have any back pain.

Yes this long run of injuries was mentally and physically challenging. It taught me the value of never taking anything for granted, so in a way I am grateful for this experience which might sound crazy, but this experience helped me fall in love with the sport again.

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Kate Sanches is the current Miss Tri-County's Teen. You can find her on her title's Instagram. 

This is her first blog for Section 36 Forevers.