Dance helped me recover from slipped disc!

When Tanushree Dhaundiyal suffered a slip disc while dancing, she thought she would have to give it up forever.

Ever since 31-year-old Tanushree Dhaundiyal can remember, she had always been a dancer. By the time she was a teen, she had already mastered all the steps of Ek Do Teen, Chaiyya Chaiyya and Macarena by copying the moves standing in front of her TV. Always a hyperactive and athletic kid, she believed that dance served as a natural outlet for her energy. In college too, Tanushree would join clubs and represent her college and win dance competitions. But despite all the passion, there was one thing she lacked training. It had never really occurred to me join a class to learn the proper techniques because I seemed to be doing just fine on my own. I would spend hours and hours rehearsing in my college. I would be exhausted by the end of the day, she reminisces.

Struggling with slipped disc

But it soon took a toll on her body. At the age of 21, the spry Delhi girl started suffering a massive back pain. She decided to go to a doctor when she couldn t bear the pain anymore. It was only after she went to a sports doctor who made her take an MRI scan, that she came to know that she had suffered a slipped disc. The reason her dancing. I didn t pay attention to any form or technique. I just danced because it was a lot of fun, she says. Her physiotherapist assigned 1.5 months of rest. She was made to undergo a therapeutic ultrasound to increase blood circulation. After about 1.5 months, she started her physiotherapy sessions. While doing physiotherapy, I observed that many of the exercises were similar to yoga asanas. That got me thinking.

The road to recovery with yoga and dance

Tanushree happened to know a yoga ballet teacher, Soraya Franco whom she credits for her fast healing. When I went to her around 1.5 months after the injury, she noticed that I had completely stopped bending forward because it caused immense pain. But what she told then changed my outlook towards exercising forever. She told me that it wasn t correct to stop a particular motion completely no matter how painful it was. Just because you have hurt some part of your body, not doing anything to it, cannot fix it. You have to look at pains in a very holistic way. You have to see why the problem happened in the first place. Then you need to fix those things in your body. Your spine needs forward bend, back bend, twisting, side bend every movement it can do. In fact, the injury had happened because I hadn t made by back flexible and strong enough by doing all of these movements. Isn t it true that in our daily lives, most of us only stoop ahead? We NEVER bend backwards. With Yoga and ballet, I was making my body do all these movements, she explains.

With Sarah, Tanushree would do one hour of Yoga followed by ballet. She guided me about all the movements I should do and how I should do. In ballet, the movements are designed to make your core, legs and hips strong, she says. That was when Tanushree thought of pursuing dance professionally. I understood that dance was not just about throwing your legs and hands around or aping steps. There is a technique to every movement. There should always be a good warm and stretch before dance so that when you do difficult steps, you don t hurt yourself. Ultimately, dance will give you a holistic workout and even solve problems like back pain, joint pains or slipped disc.

Becoming a dance teacher

In 2009, Tanushree co-founded TR Dance Company with Rahul D'lima with the idea of teaching dance the way it should be taught. They teach contemporary, jazz, ballet and their many variations. There is a lot of emphasis on warm up and stretching before every dance workout. The aim is to build flexibility and strength. So we concentrate on core and leg workouts. For ballet, there is a 40-minute warm up on the barre. For contemporary, we have coccyx balances and floor exercises. We always do the cobra stretch before every class. This is all to get your body ready for dance so that when you re dancing you re mindful of every muscle. Your muscles are ready for you. When you want to jump your abdominal muscles are ready to help you. If you want to do a split, your hamstrings have been warmed up enough to help you do it!

What Tanushree eats

Today, Tanushree does ballet 3 days a week, jazz 4 days a week and contemporary 4 days a week and spends four hours dancing every day. She makes sure she eats healthy and follows a simple but wholesome diet. Her meal plan looks like this on most days

Pre-breakfast coconut water

Breakfast - 2 eggs, organic granola or muesli (without sugar or honey) with milk and a fruit

Lunch- 2 rotis, dal and sabzi

Afternoon A glass of buttermilk or watermelon juice

During the class - Chana and kishmish

Dinner - 2 rotis, dal, raita and sabzi

Twice a week - Chicken biryani, rajma chawal, mutton or chicken curry with rice

Image source: Tanushree Dhaundiyal