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Someone told me that really good dancers dance even if they are sick or injured.

Somehow in the dance world, and even in other worlds such as sports, we've been given the idea that we must show up and perform no matter what.  This is known as a " guilt trip."

So, you don't think it's true?

Oh, I think its true - but that's not what makes a good dancer.  It makes a foolish dancer, and often a very sorry dancer.  There's a difference between someone making a responsible effort to perform - either on stage or in class - and malingering.  Whichever it is should make no difference to the teacher.

No difference?  What do you mean?

If I have a student who tells me she can't perform or comes to class ill or injured - who am I to argue?  If she is truly sick or injured she most definitely should not come to class.  If she is malingering, well, that's her right, too.  I don't think I want to have a student in class or rehearsal who doesn't want to be there. 

The only problem is when that student's behavior or absence affects others such as in a group dance in a school recital or rehearsal.  But, even so, the experienced teacher will choreograph with such a possibility in mind.  Injury and illness are always possibilities and an experienced teacher will be ready for such contingencies.

In fact, I believe the teacher's responsibility is more to the student's health and safety than any particular recital. 

So, you would keep a student from dancing if injured or ill?

Absolutely!  And have done it!  I had a lovely student, very hardworking and dedicated, who was developing ankle problems because she was being forced to run on cement surfaces at her high school.  She had an important dance competition coming up and I told her she absolutely could not dance it on pointe.  The only way I would sponsor her was if she would dance her solo in slippers.  She was greatly distraught, but I couldn't see myself contributing to her injuries.  She did dance in slippers and did very well indeed.

I learned this while listening to a well known teacher/artistic director of a school and company tell me with great enthusiasm about how her prize male student had quite severely twisted his ankle but she taped it up so he could get through several performances.  She was actually bragging about her ability to tape up his ankle! This told me that she valued her school's performance more than she valued her students.

Well, suppose one is only a bit ill?

While it is true that if every time we had a sniffle we stayed home, we probably would scarcely ever venture outside the house.  So each instance has to be evaluated.  One has to put the eagerness and dedication of the student aside, as well as put aside the teacher's desire for that student's presence, and make an objective evaluation. 

How would you do that?

In determining the severity of the illness I would consider the following:

• Is a cough in danger of becoming chronic and moving into bronchitis?
• Is the student contagious to others?
• Is the student overly tired and therefore in danger of adding injury on top of illness?
• Has the student sought medical or other professional help for the illness?

In determining the severity of an injury I would consider the following:

• Is the injury sudden or a slowly exacerbated condition?
• Will use make it chronic?
• Is there swelling?
• Is it a weight bearing joint?
• Would a change of choreography make a difference?
• How long has this been a problem?
• Is the student overly tired increasing the danger for expanding the area of injury?
• Has the student sought professional help for this injury?

This is what you think the teacher should consider?

Indeed yes, and the student too.  A student has to be willing to answer these questions honestly.  If the injury is not visible, such as tendonitis, then the teacher has to rely upon the student's honest reporting.  And this is where giving the student a guilt complex is erroneous as well as egregious.

How so?

If the teacher has set up an atmosphere in which whenever a student mentions an injury, an illness, or pain of some kind, this is considered " weak" or malingering, or somehow not measuring up to some self-imposed imagined standard - then the teacher should not be surprised when her students hesitate to report problems in a timely fashion.  In the end it is the student who will suffer the consequences.

Being ill or injured is not a sign of weakness.  It is a sign of a need for evaluation.

What if the student is just lazy or making up these problems?

If that's the case, in my experience, it will show up in more than one particular event.  The student will tend to repeatedly, or at least fairly often, offer reasons of illness and/or injury as excuse not to come to class, rehearsal or dance full out.  Again, this takes evaluation by the teacher.  Everyone upon occasion has a less than optimal day, but if it seems to happen every time a particular section of dance vocabulary - like jumps or turns - is the work at hand, then one might suspect something going on other than illness or injury. 

But even then, the student should not be made to work if she doesn't want to.  In that case, the solution is not making the student feel guilty, instead the student should be asked to rethink her participation in dance classes.  I really don't think anyone should be made to take a class they are not fully interested in pursuing.  Guilt doesn't help, it just buries the problem.