LAST season Rochelle Barham got a leg injury when rehearsing for her upcoming competition but is now back and ready for the new challenges ahead of this year’s dances.
The injury started off as muscle and ligament damage in her left foot but soon turned into an ACL injury in her knee.
Rochelle’s recovery took eight months to fully heal from her being in and out of tape for most of the year. Even though she knew the state of her injury she went on and competed in three of the universities’ competitions wearing a knee brace.
As a first-year Raven, Rochelle was scared to announce her injury as one of their dancers was already on the sidelines so they couldn’t risk another one of their dancers being out.
She said: “I was a bit scared. I didn’t want to say anything as it was my first season with the Ravens and I didn’t realise how serious the injury was so I thought I could dance on a pulled muscle.”
This year Rochelle will be dancing in the Ravens Jazz and Lyrical groups. With the Raven being part of two teams this year, there is a suspicion whether her knee can handle going straight back into competition standards and what she will do to make sure her season doesn’t end in the same way.
She said: “There is a risk of doing two teams with injury or not because both teams demand different things. There is more of an advanced risk for me because of my previous injury last season.
“If it begins to pull or I get any pain in my leg I will tell the coaches immediately. I will make sure I actually listen to my body which I didn’t do last year. It feels very strong this year.”
