My Own Body Betrayed Me 🦶💔

This year, the end-of-year show at the conservatoire was Alice. Alice in Wonderland! 🐰🫖 When they announced it, I immediately volunteered to be the rabbit. Obviously. A comic role with main character energy, literally written for me. 💁‍♀️ And they said: “we decided not to have a rabbit, because it’s too childish.” EXCUSE ME??? 🐰❌😤 Too childish? It was not too childish for the Royal Opera House (Christopher, if you are reading this: I was ready. I am still ready. 📞). Oups. Mr Lewis Carroll turned in his grave. Hello???? The rabbit??? The MAIN THEME of Alice!!!! ⏰=🐇⏰=🐇⏰=🐇⏰=🐇⏰=🐇⏰=🐇

But rabbit or no rabbit, I am SO happy to perform. 🩰✨ I love performing with my friends, preferably on a big stage, with a big audience, in a pink tutu. 💗 We were Alice’s friends at the tea party, in the classical part (can’t remember what we were in modern and contemporary, oupsy daisies 🙈). And I was easy to spot on stage: I am the one smiling like it is the best day of my life (because it is). 😁

And ONE week before the premiere is exactly when my own foot decided to file a complaint. 🦶📋 (It had been preparing its case for a few weeks: I had started to limp. Not dramatically. Just enough for mommy to notice — because mommy notices EVERYTHING. 🔍)

Now, in France, seeing a doctor is like getting tickets for a BLACKPINK concert: you book MONTHS in advance or you cry. 🎫😭 But the pharmacist gave mommy a number ☎️, and we found one who could take me on the spot. He was, like, super old. 👴 A former GP turned osteopath. Basically a doctor with a bonus level. 🎮

He checked my leg and said we would need a scan to be sure, but it looked like a “growth injury”. Meaning: I am growing so well that my own body cannot keep up with me. 🚀 I choose to take it as a compliment. 💅 Then he showed us how to strap my foot 🩹, and sent us off to find a place that does X-rays — which, in France (see above), is its own adventure. 🗺️ We got an appointment the following week, not exactly next door, even by car. 🚗

And that is how I got the first scan of my foot. Girlies. SO cool. So pretty. My skeleton is genuinely photogenic. 🦴✨📸

Back to the old doctor. He looks at the scan, nods, and says: “It’s SEVER.”

Mommy and I: “…What? Is it that bad?? 😨”

Him: “No, no. It’s SEVER.”

Us: ❓🤨🧓 (respectfully wondering if the bonus-level doctor had reached his final level)

FINALLY he explained. Sever is a CONDITION. 💡 Sever’s disease: the growth plate in your heel gets grumpy 😠 because the bone is growing faster than everything attached to it. Very common when you are young, sporty, and growing at rocket speed (guilty, guilty and guilty 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️). It goes away on its own. You just have to — brace yourselves — REST. 🛋️😱

Rest. A bit. Not the best timing, sir. ⏳ I had a show coming AND my first summer intensive right after (Paris Opera, girlies — see the Intensive Diaries 📖). I got magnesium on top of the strapping, apparently to make the leg stronger. 💊💪 So the full treatment plan was: strap, magnesium, patience. One of these three does not come naturally to me. 😬

Then Ambre’s mom saw my strapped foot and told mommy we should also see an orthopedist — Ambre had issues last year and “semelles” (custom insoles) helped a lot. 👟 Easier to get an appointment, and honestly? Quite fun. He checked if my legs were the same length 📏, made me walk on a special floor, and had me step on a machine that reads the shape of your feet — and on his computer I could see my walking pattern and my feet in 3D. 🖥️🦶 I repeat: my feet. In 3D. On a screen. Cool right? My feet are so pretty. 🤩

Findings: my feet are very “creux” — high arches — which is apparently VERY good for a dancer 🩰 (thank you, feet, all is forgiven 🙏) but means not a lot of contact area with the floor. And one of my legs is slightly longer than the other, which is completely normal when you are growing. 🌱 Then he made my semelles ON THE SPOT. I left with them. In my shoes. Same day service. Five stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Meanwhile mommy ordered pink straps 🎀 and studied strapping technique on YouTube until she was basically certified. 📺🎓 And after a few days, it was already better. I did the show — tea party, wings, whispering, all of it. ☕️🫖 I slayed. 👑 Then we left for Paris with my straps and my magnesium in the suitcase 🧳, like a professional athlete’s entourage, except the entourage was mommy (well, and Gaby). 🚄

My body and I have officially made peace. For now. 🤝🦶 (“Dramatic music”. 👀)