As I was working through one scene in my current novel, Fixing His Broken Ballerina: Volume 1, I realized that it was not only an emotionally and spiritually broken ballerina who needed fixing, but even beyond the car crash that has radically injured her legs and seems to end her dancing career, there were the injuries that her chosen profession had already inflicted on her.

I started thinking about the realities of ballet-dancing, and did a search online this morning for “ballet feet.” I found this funny picture and couldn’t help but giggle. But, within a couple of minutes I remembered “back in the day” when I took ballet instruction myself. Even though we had class in our soft shoes, I often ended up with feet that hurt (and often looked less for wear) for days afterward.

To actually choose to dance professionally is almost beyond my comprehension! The pain and disfiguration of one’s feet is monumental. And, once the damage is done, can it ever be totally reversed?! Doing a search online quickly answers this question.

But, it will help one understand better how committed a person would have to be to dancing as a profession to live with pain and the lack of future aesthetics to one’s feet, especially in a world that puts such high value to beauty… outer beauty, at least!

NON-SPOILER ALERT: The scene in the therapy session between our ballerina and her therapist will reflect what she is feeling about not only losing her dancing career, but a portion of her physical beauty that can never be regained. This is yet another time she is reminded that, as she sees it, she is nothing more than damaged goods, as she wonders if she can ever forgive the man who has ended her dancing career, and feels certain that between her damaged legs and ugly, ugly feet, no man could ever love her!