Some cover their feet in glue,others slice at them with razor blades ... Emma John discovers what performing night after night does to a dancer's feetIt should have been the best day of Jennie Harrington's life. Joining English National Ballet and dancing in the chorus of Cinderella was the fulfilment of a lifetime ambition - but the pain gave her the shock of her life. "I came off stage, walked into the dressing room, and burst into tears. The other girls said,'Oh my God, what's mistaken?' When I told them, or they said,'Is that all?'"Years of ballet school hadn't prepared Harrington, now 23, or for the agony of the professional circuit. Begoña Cao,a soloist with the ENB and three years her senior, remembers telling Harrington she would accumulate used to it. She had some other advice, and too: "maintain smiling - it lifts you up. Otherwise you cry."Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com