Posted on: December 8, 2006
Pamper Your Peds
Professional dancers share their secrets for treating your hard-worked feet
By Lisa Arnett
CTW Features
Image courtesy iStock Photo
When it comes to having the most used and abused feet around, professional dancers are at the top of the list – and their career depends on keeping them in top-notch shape. Who better to provide feet-treat advice to us mere mortals than the dancers themselves? Seven ballet and contemporary dancers weigh in on the best tried-and-true remedies for common foot gripes.
After tromping around town in sky-high stilettos, you’re bound to have tender arches and sore top-of-your-foot tendons — both of which dancers are no stranger to. “Muscle soreness is my biggest foot complaint,” says Brian Hare, a dancer with Chicago Dance Crash. “As a dancer, it is basically a permanent condition that we have to embrace and learn to love – but that doesn’t mean that everyone else has to.”
Take a Soak
The most highly recommended treatment for muscle soreness is soaking feet in warm water and Epsom salt, a super-cheap product available at drug stores. “Just follow the directions on the side of the box and you’ll have your own little foot spa in your bathroom sink,” Hare says. “[It] helps loosen muscle tension and helps to soften callused skin so that it can be filed off. This is a much better alternative to products like BenGay. It’s not only cheaper but is more effective and far less smelly.”
Go Homeopathic
“For general soreness and pain, I could not live without arnica gel,” says Courtney Hellebuyck, a dancer with San Francisco’s Smuin Ballet, referring to a homeopathic natural pain rub made from the arnica plant, grown in the Pacific Northwest. “It basically speeds up the body's natural-healing process. You don't feel it working as you would with something like Icy Hot [muscle rub], for instance, but instead of just masking the pain, it is actually healing it,” says Hellebuyck.
Strengthen Up
Sore foot muscles usually indicate that they’re not used to working so hard – consider giving them an easy workout, as recommended by Hare. “The only thing that I do almost everyday in terms of my feet is to give them a little workout,” he says.
Try pointing your toe as hard as you can, extending from your ankle rather than curling your toes under; then flex your foot as hard as you can. Repeat for 5 minutes on each foot.
“You can do this while watching TV or laying in bed. Pointing from the ankle not only strengthens the ankle but also stretches the arch of your foot. I’ve found that doing this has helped my posture and, as odd as it sounds, I trip far less often than I used to.”
Try Massage
“You should definitely massage your feet. They support our bodies – we have to be kind to them,” says Sarah Keating of Chicago Dance Crash. “You can rub your own feet or grab a partner and massage each other’s feet. Rub the arches and make sure to pull the toes out a little bit, especially of they spent a long day standing in shoes.”
Laura Tomlinson, another CDC dancer, recommends another technique: “When the tops of your arches are sore, place your two thumbs at the top of your arch and apply pressure as you go town the length of your foot down to your metatarsals, and come back up the sides of your arch, circling your thumbs outward, and repeat,” she says. “Using an oil or lotion helps but should not be used if there are any open sores on your foot.”
Walk in the Waves
“Nothing relieves the aches and blisters of a tough rehearsal week like a walk in the ocean,” says Celia Fushille-Burke, associate director of Smuin Ballet who danced in the company from 1994 to 2006. “That cool Pacific salt water is nature’s healer. It's like icing your feet in salt water – only better!”
Go Balls Out
Amy Seiwart, a principal dancer with Smuin Ballet, looks to the fairway for her favorite massage tool for sore feet, especially arches.
“Roll them on golf balls! They are small and hard enough to get deep in there,” she says. “I've been told this is great if one has any tendency towards plantar fasciitis.”
Get Bottled Up
Sarah Pingel, a dancer with New York-based Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, keeps water bottles in her freezer in anticipation of an especially sore feet situation. “When I come home from a really tough day of dancing and my arches are cramped, I take out the frozen bottle and roll each foot on top of it, about 5 minutes each foot. It reduces the inflammation … [and] makes my feet feel so refreshed when I’m done.”
