Irish dancing responsibility.

moonshadow

Hi , this may not be in the best place if the mods can help I'd appreciate.

My 15 yo daughter is an irish dancer very, very committed and quite talented with numerous irish and international medals etc..
My problem is that she came home from practice tonight with two bloody socks, this is not the first instance and I'm going to approach the school tomorrow, much against her advice.(it's not bad fitting shoes)
My question is , should her teachers/school have some responsibility towards her health and well being , I firmly believe they should like any other football or athletic club might.
Appreciate advice.

Neyite

Did your daughter tell her teacher her feet were bleeding or sore? Did the teacher insist she continue on practising? If she did, then I say go in and talk to them. If she didn't, well, they can argue that they didn't know and its up to your daughter to tell them if she is sore and you might get nowhere. Were there any waivers you had to sign - might be no harm to have a quick look at it again.

amdublin

How would the teacher know?

Plus was your daughter even aware of it ie. Are/were her feet sore during practice? Sometimes you are enjoying something so much you are oblivious that you are bleeding.

Where is the blood coming from btw?? I'm finding it hard to visualise unless maybe she has a nail injury?

Xdancer

I did ballet for years and often when I took my pointe shoes off I would have bloody toes and hadn't realised until I actually saw it. Sometimes it happens when dancing, I wouldn't go running to the dance school about it. At 15 your daughter should be able to speak up for herself. I've never done Irish dancing myself but is there some kind of protection she could put on her toes?

Big Bag of Chips

I think at 15 it's her own responsibility to make sure her feet are properly cared for. She's 15. If she has asked you not to go to the school then I think you should respect that. She probably didn't tell her teachers her feet were hurting. She probably didn't even notice herself until she took off her shoes. Her shoes may not be ill fitting but they are obviously rubbing somewhere that is causing the cuts. A few strategically placed plasters should help.

If she was dancing bare foot she probably wouldn't be bleeding, so it does seem to be the shoes. Unless she speaks up and tells her teacher, and her teacher ignores her and tells her to continue dancing then I don't know how you can think it's the teacher/schools responsibility. At 15 she is old enough to be responsible for herself.

SusieBlue

I have some background in this area. At her age and her level of competitiveness I wouldn't expect this to be a new issue. Those shoes are very hard on the feet and I was constantly bleeding from them.

I presume its heavy shoes your talking about? Are they new? Had they been properly broken in? If no, then cuts and blisters are part of the parcel with breaking in new heavys. Unfortunate, but a necessary evil when breaking in a new pair.

If they aren't new shoes, then it must be something to do with how the shoe is fitting. By this, I mean, could the seam from her socks possibly be putting too much pressure on the skin? I used to wear my poodle socks inside out for class because the seam used to rub so much I'd always end up blistered.

I'd only consider it an issue with the teacher if your daughter complained of pain and was told to keep going anyway. Really, short of buying your daughter new shoes, what can the teacher do to stop this? Its up to you to sort the shoes out if they are whats causing the problem.
Likening it to football clubs etc doesn't make sense because if a boy gets a cut from his football boots rubbing him the wrong way, its not the responsibility of the club. Its his own issue to sort his boots out.

I remember from my own days, my teacher had a box of plasters and if you were bleeding or sore you were given the box and told to sort yourself out before continuing on with the class

Irish dancing is a far more injury ridden sport than many would believe so I can sympathize with your daughter. Its been 8 years since I gave up but my feet still look awful in sandals after all my years abusing them!

Good luck, hope you sort out a solution.

moonshadow

Thank you for all the advice , I suppose I just got annoyed upon seeing it (she wasn't ) and in fairness she does look after herself better than I give her credit for , I'm the doting daddy that may be the real problem
Thx.

karina8

I'm completely agree with you! I like the Irish dance and to to find a new dancing course near my home or work location !