One of the members of my senior competition team has suffered a knee injury that requires surgery. Our first competition is in March and I know she will not be recovered fully at that time. We then do one competition a month until Nationals in July. This is the second time that she has suffered an injury like this. Two years ago she hurt her knee in May two weeks before a competition. We were able to rearrange routines and just remove her. She returned (at the begging of her and her mother that she was okay) to compete one number at Nationals. In hindsight I realize that she wasn't ready and it showed on stage. Anyway, I'm at the point where I need to make a decision about her place in the group. The dancers are still learning the choreography for their routines (whereas last time she was injured the routines were completed)and I feel like even if she heals in time to come back for the 2nd or 3rd competition of the year, she will be behind because she didn't learn all the chorerography. I hate to pull her for the entire competition year, but I don't know what else to do. She has the option of still participating in the recital with tap and production numbers when her injury heals but wouldn't be able to perform the competition numbers. I have a former competition dancer who would be willing to jump in and fill the spot so we wouldn't have to make changes, but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. This is definitely a sensitive student and mother. Anyone have any advice on what they would do in this situation???

As much as it is a sore subject, you can't have her hurting herself any more than she already is. I don't know how old she is, but it sounds like she's old enough to see this logically, as much as it hurts emotionally. Would you be held liable if she hurt herself more while competing? Whatever you decide to do, I'd require a doctor's clearance for her to be able to compete.

Can you give her spot to an understudy until she is ready and shows it? And, if she never shows it, then the understaudy just stays in the whole time? We have had a girl out since August and she wanted to dance in a performance at the end of January. Well, she won't start class until Jan 2, and she thought that she would be fine to dance by Jan 28. We told her no. So, her understudy is doing all of her dances until she is ready. She actually has a different understudy for each dance.

I have dealt with it, two ways. If a dancer can do some things but not all, I try to work around it, if the doctors says that it's okay, if they have an upcoming performance. I will rework things, if possible. Once I even had a dancer in a wheelchair, and we worked it in for two competitions.

The other is if the doctor says not to dance. Then they are out of all until he/she says that it's ok.

I agree with missingcharmin.....give her spot to the other girl, make the injured girl an understudy. I always tell my dancers that your health and safety MUST come first, and if she further injures herself, she might not be able to dance EVER. So in the grand scheme, one competition season would be much better than having a debilitating injury for the rest of your dancing life.

I know it feels hard for the dancer right now, but that's the way life is. At one point in her life life she might acknowledge (as we all do) that dancing is something you do for the joy of it - and competitions isn't the whole world. If she can't dance at that point, she'll hate you for it...

Ask yourself the question - will she thank you when she's 40 years old?

In addition to all of the above comments, I was thinking if she's injured, therefore not taking regular class, then she won't be ready for competition, not only because she's not fully healed, but because she's out of "dance shape." It will take awhile of regular classes for her to gain control of her body again to get back to a competition level. If her body's not strong enough or flexible enough to do movements she used to be able to do, she could be injured again. This would worry me more than hurting the dancer's (or the mother's) feelings.

Good luck! I don't envy your situation. I hope your dancer is feeling better soon and this will just be a small bump in the road for her.

I tend to agree that she should sit the season especially if this has happened before. I ran into an issue where my strongest student had an ankle injury, not forcing her out for the year, but to take it easy. She still competed but when she was feeling strain she would have to sit on the condition that she was writing notes on the choreography and practicing the arms. After a rough year and a half she's finally healed and back strong as ever. I also had one student who had to have knee surgery and she was able to plan her surgery until after all three regional events were done so she wasn't able to perform in the recital or go to nationals in July but we had enough time before nationals to rework the choreograhy. If this is a surgery that cannot wait I would explain to the parents and the student that she unfortunately should sit the year out. I think the understudy idea is also fantastic. Although on the flipside how upset is this understudy going to be if she puts in all the work and doesn't actually get to dance. I also work in the health care field so I know that sometimes a recovery time of 2 months can turn into 4. I would present it to the family that way and say your top priority is her health and her future. Tell them there will always be next year (hopefully she's not a senior gong away to college next year lol). Good luck!

Pull her. It not worth it to keep her in it to make her happy. Just take her Out for the year and tell her why, give he another chance next year. Sorry, but the truth is ugly lol.

I would let her be an understudy and that's it. Even if she is back to 100% by the time competitions roll around, it's not fair to another dancer to have the formerly injured dancer come in at the last minute.

If (heaven forbid) someone else gets injured before one of the other competitions down the line, and she is ready, then she can sub in. I wouldn't save a spot for her because it's simply not fair to all the other dancers.