How to Take Care of Your "Dancing Feet"

Having healthy feet is very important when you are a dancer.  If your feet are not healthy, it can cause you to not be able to continue dancing. 

Here are some common problems that I have found when it comes to a dancer’s foot:

•         Pinched toes

•         Aching arches

•         Tingling nerves

•         Throbbing heels

•         Ingrown toenails

•         Ankle injuries

No dancer deserves to have any of these foot problems.    Here are some ways to prevent all these horrible feet problems from happening:

•         Always wear dance shoes that fit you ( Or any other shoe for that matter)

•         Never walk barefoot on the grass, concrete, or hot sand. There is fungus lying debris that can lodge into your foot.  Also the hot sun can cause blisters and soreness to your toes and heals.

•         Always wear comfortable sneakers while taking long walks, even though you are not dancing, having blisters from uncomfortable shoes while walking, will make your feet 10x worse when you start dancing.

•         Always warm up and stretch your feet before dancing and cool down after dancing.

•         If you start to see cuts on your feet, take care of it right away before it gets worse.

•         Use a pumice stone to take off any dry skin, or dead calluses.

If you see that your foot problem seems to get worse, you should consult a doctor.  Dancing on a twisted ankle and damaged toes is not healthy and it can make it a lot worse.  Sometimes if you let your foot injury go too long, surgery might need to be required to fix the problem.

If  have ingrown toenails, make sure you cut them down right away and bandage them up, especially if you are planning to put pointe shoes back on.  Getting sweat and dirt into these cuts from dancing can cause bad infections. 

Blisters are extremely common with dancers.  If you have a closed blister, you should leave it closed unless the pressure from inside the shoe gets too much.  The closed blister will heal on its own without getting bacteria and dirt in it.  If you have an open blister, you should wash it out immediately with soup and water and bandage it right away.  Dirt and sweat will only infect the blister. 

Dancing with foot infections will take the joy out of dancing and is not fun for any dancer! You can trust me on that one!