Confessions Of An Injured Performer: What I’ve Learned From A Month Of Gigs And Injury

June has been an intense and busy month, but also the most rewarding of 2024 so far. I have been performing aerial again while navigating recovering from an injury. Before I started performing I had a job that was solely online, so any time I hurt myself I just took time off to rest. It’s a completely new experience having to go against what I’d normally do, and try and find a way to be able to safely move my body so that I can make a living and at the same time not make my injury worse. 

In April I tripped and fell over, and landed really badly on my right hand. I sprained my index and middle finger, and the impact also caused loss of range of motion in my wrist. I didn’t actually realise the full extent of the damage until about 8 weeks into recovery. By this point I was already back training aerial and had even been on a 5 day intensive, because it was part of a funded project that I couldn’t rearrange (I was very careful). 

But performing is different; your body surges with adrenaline and you can’t feel pain in the same way, if at all. Performing like there is nothing wrong with my hand could risk injuring it or making it worse. I took out anything from my aerial act that I thought could even remotely cause me issues, and added new choreography. But ultimately I just had to try it and see what happened. 

I can confirm I managed all of my gigs successfully, despite a lot of fear and anxiety that something would go horribly wrong. I could certainly feel my hand had been used the day after, but definitely not any worse. I really tried to listen to my body through all of this, and I had to be hyper aware and focused while actually doing my hoop act. 

So here are my thoughts on being a performer with an injury, and what I’ve learned over the past month.

1. The Human Body Is Amazing

Don’t get me wrong, if you have a serious injury then you need rest followed by rehab, followed by easing back into training. But I’ve had to speed up the process slightly, and I’m fortunate that my injury wasn’t so severe that I couldn’t do that. I made the decision not to cancel all of my summer work, but try and adapt what I could to accommodate my hand in order to perform. I’m blown away by how my body has coped with the demands of performing despite not being 100%. Equally I made as many smart decisions about my act as I could, and my diligence with rehab at the start of this has paid off too.

I’m absolutely not recommending other people train hard or do lots of physical things with an injury. But I have realised that thanks to building such a solid foundation of strength and mobility over the past decade, I am able to come back from certain things more quickly than if I didn’t have that base. I have nothing but love and respect for my body for carrying me through this.

2. It’s Ok To Scale Everything Back

It doesn’t make you less of a performer if you need to simplify or change your act so that it’s easier on your body. Whether you’re injured or not, this is something that could be encouraged more. Most of the time we aren’t performing to our peers, we’re performing to an audience who don’t know exactly what they’re watching. They can’t tell how hard every move is, and some of the simplest poses look the most impressive. 

I made modifications to my aerial act so that I didn’t have to worry about anything I had to do. I didn’t need the stress or the risk. I had to take out parts of my act that I love performing because they’re fun for the audience, but it’s a small compromise to ensure I can keep performing over the rest of the summer. I certainly didn’t give any less in my performances, and was still able to have fun with the choreography I kept.

3. You’re Not Letting Other People Down By Prioritising Your Wellbeing

If you need to change, adjust or shorten what you’re doing to ensure that you don’t make an already less than ideal situation worse, that’s ok. And if anyone does get upset about it, that’s not someone you want to work with anyway. You can’t control being injured. Sometimes we over do things, sometimes accidents happen. 

Showing up and being professional is important. Making adjustments to what you’re doing to keep yourself safe and not damage your body is also important. 

4. Find The Great People

I have been incredibly fortunate to work with brilliantly professional and understanding people through June. I’ve been able to change acts (I had been booked for handbalncing and I couldn’t do that because my wrist is not able to cope), I’ve been able to modify my aerial act, and I’ve been reassured if anything feels wrong while I’m onstage I can just take a bow and walk off. Safety first. 

Luckily I’ve been able to perform and have fun, and work hard. But it’s also really helped me mentally to have people around me who are understanding and able to accommodate the situation. 

Although I’m talking really positively about my experience now that I’m sort of out the other side, it has been hard. I have at times felt like a failure, like I’m doing a bad job and letting everyone around me down. I have felt like a fraud, unable to perform certain disciplines, and no idea when I’ll actually be back to where I was before I got hurt. I’ve felt frustrated and just totally unable to see why this happened in the first place. 

But I’ve adapted and got through it, and so that’s what I want to focus on and celebrate. Anything bad is always just temporary anyway. I’m excited to see what the rest of summer brings!