Oh the Joy of Plantar Fasciitis

I have to apologize. No wonder I have only 10 followers. I go on a blog hiatus for weeks..maybe months.. at a time. Oops. Let's see where to start, where to start?! It looks as if my last blog post was my homemade pop tarts. I don't even remember what was happening at that point in my life. Usually there is something going on when I bake things. It is a little outlet for me. Whether I had an amazing day or the worst day ever, I can bake and it always makes everything better. (HEY YOU LIKE THAT RHYME?! I do.) I baked a lot the past few weeks. I have a bothersome injury that has been lurking for months now. It's called plantar fasciitis. I know, it sounds like some flesh eating disease that is going to take over the world. But it's not. It only the most obnoxious "injury" I've had. Our physical therapist, Emery, continues to tell me how I would be much better off breaking my foot. He also continued to tell me horror stories about his volleyball player who kept playing on her severe plantar fasciitis and eventually tore it. Thanks dude! I can just feel the confidence welling up inside of me.... NOT! ha-ha The injury started with the setting of the ballet "La Fille Mal Gardee". We were doing 6 hours a day of this ballet which is full of prancing, skipping, running in the "pink coffins" (pink coffins are what Emery calls our pointe shoes ha-ha), pretty much every step in the world that you can't put your heels down to give your calves a rest. So my calves got extremely tight and in part made me use my foot in the wrong way and I strained my posterior tibial tendon and gave me plantar fasciitis. The injury is very common among runner's and the normal population. It is horribly irritating to treat because the simplest things bother it, walking, biking, standing, sleeping.... breathing... Okay maybe not breathing but pretty much EVERYTHING else. The issue is when you sleep your foot is in a relaxed position, usually "pointed" against the sheet. So when I wake up in the morning the first couple steps out of bed are like the most hideous pain in the world. It feels as though the sole of my foot has been set on fire and someone is stabbing me with a knife. The solution? I now sleep with a night splint. It is a lovely contraption that keeps my foot in a flexed position all night so my fascia stay stretched and extended while I dream of ponies and rainbows. Now it got so unbearable in the La Fille rehearsals I had to sit out of most of them. Meanwhile the next two weeks we were performing the triple bill of Balanchine's Ballo Della Regina, Mark Morris' Sandpaper Ballet, and Stanton Welch's Pecos. I was in all three for all 7 shows. To keep my on for all the shows of the triple bill our director decided it was best for my to continue rest during the week rehearsals of Fille and then perform the triple bill on the weekend. This however meant I would be taken out of the first weekend of shows of Fille and return after rest for the last 4 shows of the season. It is never a nice feeling when you cannot perform. It doesn't matter what ballet it is. You just want to be part of every second of the process. After weeks and weeks of off and on dancing from a Village girl, to a Balanchine girl, to a jolly green monster, to a Spinster, to a Bar girl prostitute, I finally am back to a Village girl tonight for my own "opening night" show of La Fille ;) Wish me luck! ha-ha

Sandpaper Ballet, costumes by Isacc Mizrahi