My Professional Dance Career

It has been a while since I last wrote on my blog about personal life goals over medical and lymphoedema related content. Since my blog post titled 'Dance', I have graduated university in the national lockdown, auditioned and secured 3 professional contracts. Fresh out of my degree I spent a long time pondering whether dancing was the right choice of career with my lymphoedema following a huge stint in lymphoedema care throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. I finally accepted that this condition was not going to go away and that if I let it get in the way of my passion for dance, I was letting it change the whole trajectory of my life which I have envisaged for myself.

My first professional contract was at Disneyland Paris, doing character performance roles as well as various dance tracks on their daily and seasonal parades. Moving to France for 18 months taught me how to introduce myself to people with my lymphoedema already present. It was the first time that it wasn't new or different for people around me to suddenly have a swollen leg. To them it was just part of me from the beginning. I felt a sense of acceptance from the cast member at DLP that they didn't see me as any different because of my condition. And as for the costumes, they were so large and characterise that I had next to no issues covering my compression garments and swelling when I was performing.

Following this contract, I auditioned and took a contract onboard cruise ship AIDAnova. This was a 6-month contract dancing and sailing around Northern and Western Europe. The style of dance and rehearsal process for this was much more intense than anything else I had done before. It was long hours, on my feet, in heels, blistered toes. While I tried to look after my leg as best as I could, it felt like an uphill battle. I later found out that some cruise ship cabins are slightly pressurised which could have been the reasoning for my increase in swelling and pain for the months I was on this ship. I came with my normal compression allowance and very quickly felt unprepared with my lack of resources and knowledge going into a contract not knowing what to expect. While I made it through the contract safely, I had noticed a huge increase in my swelling on my return to England.

With the knowledge from the previous contract, I then accepted another cruise ship contract onboard AIDAcosma for 7 months sailing around the Mediterranean and Canary Islands. I almost doubled the amount of compression garments which I took with me and found new innovative techniques in which I could self manage whilst abroad (which I will go into further detail on another blog post). Similar to Disney, on both AIDA contracts I was extremely lucky to have a cast and creative team who supported and adjusted aspects to my requirements. This included having 2 different size shoes to allow for my right foot swelling, altering the seams of costumes so they fit both legs appropriately and also making sure I was confident wearing my compressions on stage.

I am aware that my career is far from over and I am indescribably lucky to still be able to have the ability and mobility to do what I love. I hope that my journey in performing arts and lymphoedema will continue with such support and positivity shown in the jobs I have already worked.