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Although early retirement is a common phenomenon among all professional sports, the reason for athletes to retire from competitive dance is more complex compared to others. Just like all other sports, injury is the leading cause of retirement among dancers. However, there are other factors such as eating disorders and failure to find company jobs that also lead to career-ends.

One of the more controversial reasons for retirement is because of dancers wanting to start families and getting too old. One example is from the world-famous Rockettes, who on average get cast at the age of 18 and close the curtain to their professional career within 10 years of performing. Most dance companies, such as the Rockettes, have practices up to six hours or longer each day of the week; which can make it difficult for anyone who has a young family or wants to start one.

Although starting a family is a common reason why many dancers retire, there are also plenty of examples of professional dancers who have kids and continue their careers years after. Photographer Lucy Gray captured moments with a handful of Prima Ballerinas who started a family in the middle of their professional career. The definition of a Prima Ballerina is “the principal female dancer in a ballet company.” Gray published all of the photos in a book called Balancing Acts, which shows the excitement and struggles of having a family while in the industry, such as bringing a child to the rehearsal room and having to quickly breastfeed while in between performances.

High school, college or even professional dancers may also have to quit the sport because of the severe mental abuse that they endure. More specifically, dancers tend to suffer from eating disorders. Jon Arcelous, Professor in Mental Health at the University of Nottingham, conducted a study to systematically compile and analyze the rates of eating disorders in dancers. In this study, he found that dancers tend to have a three times higher risk than the average person to suffer from eating disorders compared to non-dancers. Anorexia nervosa was the most commonly found eating disorder, closely followed by bulimia and EDNOS (eating disorders not otherwise specified).

One dancer at Grand View University, who chose to stay anonymous for this story, reflected on their time doing competitive dance in high school.

“I loved it (dance), I really did… It was just really hard ‘cause there were some days where I had to log my food and give it to my ballet instructor for her to judge. I always ate too much food and ended up cutting to almost 500 calories a day just to seem good enough for her,” anonymous said.

The development from these eating disorders is dangerous to highly active people and can lead to heart problems and in some cases death. Some notable professional dancers, Heidi Guenther and Vera Ellen both died due to complications from their eating disorders. Ellen suffered from bulimia while Guenther suffered from anorexia which led to cardiac arrest.

The dancer at GV said, “I had to quit dance. I went to therapy for my eating struggles and finally decided it was best for my mental health and physical health to quit, which was hard but I was getting injured a lot from lack of nutrition.”

Injuries in the dance industry are just as common as other sports, but they are usually ‘created’ differently and are difficult to fix. Most dance injuries are caused by overuse and/or using a specific joint or muscle incorrectly, which makes recovery harder since the body does not remember how to use the joint correctly. According to Kalter Physical Medicine in New York, Patellar Tendonitis (also known as “Jumper’s Knee”) is an injury “at the base of the kneecap (patella)… usually caused by overuse, especially from jumping activities.”

Other common injuries for dancers include concussions, snapping hip syndrome, labral tears, hip flexor tendonitis, achilles tears, ankle impingement, metatarsal and tibia fractures, lumbar spine fractures and severe arthritis in a wide variety of joints.

Abigail Peiffer is a sophomore on the Grand View University Dance Team (GVDT) who is currently suffering from a knee injury, “[I’ve been dancing for] 16 years and I broke my wrist, broke my hip twice, I had nerve damage in my feet, I’ve now torn my meniscus three times.”

Peiffer completed her third meniscus surgery in late March and hopes to be fully healed for her third season on the team.

Peiffer is not the only one on the GVDT currently suffering from injuries. Out of the 28 dancers there are currently six going through different sorts of hip and knee injuries. Kiersten Latham, senior and captain on the team, has been dancing since she was two and has gone through six hip surgeries due to hip dysplasia in both of her hips.

“The first time I had hip dysplasia was my freshman year of high school and I thought I was just going to have to end my career there. I decided to push through the pain, which is a bad idea, and ended up having my first surgeries my junior year,” Latham said.

Since these injuries tend to start weeks to years before it becomes a serious problem, how can a dancer avoid a career ending injury that long in advance? The habits for avoiding injuries are starting to be coached early on with young dancers since the average age kids start the sport is three to five years old. Although coaches do focus on these habits such as stretching, some coaches can turn the warm-up into an injury-prone exercise.

Jayda Roethler, a sophomore GVDT member said, “I remember my coaches putting weights on us or stepping on us so we could get our splits down faster.”

Iowa CATS All Stars in Urbandale, Iowa uses ankle and wrist weights that are a pound each during each one of their practices to make the dancers stronger during each routine. Although this exercise has possibly led the team to multiple national and world titles, it has also progressively caused hip and knee injuries for their current members and alumni. The team has a wide variety of athletes who have gone on to dance for college teams and a variety of athletes that have had to quit due to injury.

Stacie Horton, the head coach of the GVDT said, “About 8-10 (dancers) have had to stop completely. A lot of it was because of overuse, they danced on (not fully healed injuries) for so long they just become too weak.”

So, what do dancers do when they have to retire from the sport they love but cannot seem to move on from it? The one big answer is to become a coach, choreographer or instructor for any team or studio/company.

Horton danced throughout high school and was on the University of Iowa Pom Squad (which is what it was referred to at the time) before being offered and accepting a job with the Iowa Barnstormers as their dance team coach for a few years. She then decided to settle down and have a family, which did not stop her passion for dance and led her to start the GVDT program 20 years ago.

Kelsey Nichols suffered from a number of ankle injuries in college where she even danced with a boot on or took it off temporarily to compete. Nichols is now an assistant coach for the GVDT and is the head choreographer that helped bring home a Judges Choice Award at the Iowa State Dance Team Association’s 2021 State Championships.

“I want to keep teaching (after this year),” Latham said. “I teach at a studio right now in Waukee called Premier Dance Project, and I love it.”

Although Latham would love to continue dancing after college, she is currently dancing through two torn labrums that will need to get fixed once she graduates.

Latham, just like Horton and Nichols, has been carrying on their passion for the sport by coaching the next generation of dancers. Through the thick and thin, and all the blood, sweat and tears, dance has always been there for them. This also goes for every athlete on the GVDT and each dancer around the world. It may be a sport that is short-lived but it makes every second in the studio and on the stage worth everything.