Thread: Dancing when sick

Hi, everyone!
I'm feeling a bit cold and I have a performance tomorrow. I already had some medication and I think I can handle it. Nothing special, really. If I felt too bad I wouldn't dance...
Any advice? Any experiences about dancing feeling sick?

Thanks!
Ana

OH I so identify! I have a cold now. It's the 4th time I've been sick in 3 months; good grief; and I'm supposed to be dancing next weekend.

I would recommend extra sleep, making sure you eat and drink well even if you don't feel like it . . . and about 45 mins to an hour before you're going on, 2 extra-strength Tylenol washed down with a cup of coffee. Good luck!
Rosette

Hi!

How about performing with a concussion? Any advice?

Better to go improv with a familiar song or try to remember choreography steps with throbbing headache?

Thanks!

Oh, Jennah, that's bad!
Today I'm feeling a little bit better, but anyway I had to take cortisone.
I will improvise a part of the song and add choreographed moves to another part.
It's difficult to decide what to do, because the "feeling" of the music for improvision is not working very well when one doesn't feel good. So, maybe the best is having something in mind. But, on the other hand, choreography steps don't come to memory so easily...

Originally Posted by ANA_bellydancer

Oh, Jennah, that's bad!
Today I'm feeling a little bit better, but anyway I had to take cortisone.
I will improvise a part of the song and add choreographed moves to another part.
It's difficult to decide what to do, because the "feeling" of the music for improvision is not working very well when one doesn't feel good. So, maybe the best is having something in mind. But, on the other hand, choreography steps don't come to memory so easily...

Hi Ana,

I'm glad you are feeling better. It is not fun to be sick.

Thanks for the advice. I think I may try to listen to a familiar song and add some dance steps by improvisation or just familiar steps at the right beats. I think I can still do that.

Take care!

A steam bath for the face can clear up the slime for a while when you have a cold.

I second the face-sauna- a couple of drops of an essential oil (I like lavender or sweet orange to settle me with tea-tree or eucalyptus for the suffering nostrils!) will help as well.
It's amazing what adrenaline, silly amounts of coffee and sheer willpower can do to the body- I've taught through a migraine that otherwise would have had me horizontal, main reason being that the self-employed don't get sick pay ;), but that was piano so I was at least sitting down! I could probably have forced myself to dance though, and got Other Half to carry me to the car after...

Neck up neck down rule, if your body hurts, aches, fever, chills don't dance. If it's a headache or sinus pressure dance but easy on the spinns.

Do not dance with a concussion!!!

I have the same question, actually. This tuesday I got a really bad cold. I've been trying to remedy it the whole week, and I don't have any fever or sore throat (anymore) but I still have a *very* stuffed nose. I occassionally sneeze and cough, but it's not a persistent or dry cough, and we're only talking like a couple times a day, not all the time.

Problem is, I have a student performance tomorrow (sunday), with the last rehearsal being today. I'm supposed to go there in about an hour or so and I still am not sure what to do.
I really want to be in the performance, and I don't want to mess up the choreos for the other students in the groups because both choreos I'm participating in involve some dancing in groups of two and in one of the choreos we are already down to only 3 participating students (including me). Still, I don't want to do anything that's bad for my health.


What do you guys do in a situation like this? Do you just medicate and dance, or do you stay home sick?

/Annaka, the (now) red-nosed belly dancer

I was in this situation last Saturday, sore throat, bad cold and doing a solo at a hafla. Aspirine, long hot shower and steam just before you put your make up helps. I also took some licorice and eucalyptus candy. A drink or two can also help loosen things up, but obviously only if you can still seem sober.