Injury is all around us. Just yesterday, Alina Cojocaru was tweeting about it being the six-year anniversary of the surgery for a whiplash injury which could have ended her career while this morning, Lauren Cuthbertson sadly tweeted about a final-hour injury which has taken her out of the upcoming Royal Ballet performances of Manon.

For many, injury means a (substantial) recovery period before being able to return to dance, while others face a loss of confidence or not being able to dance again, and in a profession where pain is the foundation of people's everyday lives, simply having injuries checked out and treated can be one of the largest hurdles.

There is an ever-growing wealth of information and resources about injuries in dance - from the oft-quoted statistic of the 80% annual injury rate among professional dancers (or that the pain threshold of ballerinas is 3 times higher than that of non-ballerinas) to Jenni Wren's work with dancers and injuries and Nefeli Tsiouti's Project Breakalign, whose mission is to educate dancers and reduce injuries.

And yet, there are often far too many hurdles for dancers to have their niggles and pains checked out: perhaps due to work commitments, or fear of losing work, or the financial implications, or being so accustomed to living with everyday pain, or fear of the diagnosis.

Also, as far too many dancers know, local GPs lack the specialised knowledge to handle dance injuries, which in itself too often leads to misdiagnosis and further complications.

Thankfully, since the launch of NIDMS (National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science)in 2012, there are now three free dance injury clinics available: one in London, based at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, one in Birmingham and another in Bath, through the Royal United Hospital Bath's Sports Injury Clinic, provided by the Dance Again Foundation.   

On Sunday 28 September, there will be a fundraising gala at Sadler's Wells in London for the Dance Again Foundation to raise funds for a specialist physiotherapist and awareness-raising. It is an extremely high-profile event for a small charity, but the support offered - for example, the gala's fantastic lineup - displays how important and essential their work is. Now it's up to us to buy up all the tickets and attend their show.

It's been nearly three years since a small news article reported an attack on a teenage ballet dancer in Cardiff one night in early November 2011, leaving him with neck injuries and paralysis which seemed to end his promising career after it had only just started. And yet through sheer determination, Jack Widdowson managed to regain full mobility and returned to the stage barely seven months after the attack. After completing his apprenticeship with Bern Ballet, Jack is now a member of the Tanz Ensemble at Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland, and he will be presenting a new work at the gala.

After assisting Jack through his recovery, his parents - Celia Widdowson, a teacher of child patients at Bath’s Royal United Hospital, and Dr Julian Widdowson, a consultant in sports medicine - created Dance Again Foundation to help other injured dancers and performers back to performing again by providing necessary rehabilitation services.

In the past year alone, DAF has provided consultations and treatment worth more than £10,000 to injured dancers, and made hundreds of phone calls and emails to support dancers in making the best recovery they can. In addition, DAF has saved dancers' families thousands of pounds in the past year by finding appropriate NHS treatments instead of private alternatives, or by negotiating a discounted rate for their clients.  

The charity does not use any of its funds to pay its staff, who provide these services around their existing work, as providing the best possible care for dancers is their priority.

While a gala is necessary to raise sufficient funds to provide frontline services, backline support and to fund the specialist physiotherapist attached to their new NHS Clinic for dancers in Bath, DAF has tried to create an enticing programme - low on speeches and, well, words - and high on dance works to be savoured.

Highlights of the lineup include:

• Edward Watson, principal dancer of The Royal Ballet, performing Arthur Pita’s Spiderman
• Northern Ballet with a world premiere of Forbidden Fruit by Kenneth Tindall
• Ballet Black with Christopher Marney's Two of a Kind
• Birmingham Royal Ballet with an amusing excerpt from David Bintley’s Flowers of the Forest
• the pas de deux from Esmeralda by ENB’s joint winners of the Emerging Dancer competition this year Alison McWhinney and Junor Souza
• former ENB principal Yat-Sen Chang with Emma Lucibello performing an excerpt of Don Quixote

To offset the evening's ballet works, there will also be performances by ZooNation Youth, Stomp, Richard Alston Dance Company and Scott Miller's Tappers, while for Strictly Come Dancing lovers out there, Gavin Henson will be reprising his waltz with Michelle Webber of Dance Factory Bristol. And finally, to remind us of the work the Foundation offers, Jack Widdowson will be performing a new piece, 'Morsel'. The evening will be hosted by rugby and TV personality David Flatman.

Just as I finished writing this preview, I saw this perfectly-timed tweet:

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Tickets & Further Information

To enable as many people as possible to enjoy this Gala, the tickets are affordably priced at £12-£49, with VIP packages for £125.

There is also a 2-for-1 ticket offer available for ticket purchases by phone, quoting the offer code Winner.

Tickets can be bought over the phone at 0844 412 4300 or online at www.danceagain.org.

Discounted coach transport is also provided from Bath and Midsomer Norton for £20.

For further information and enquiries, or to make donations, please email Celia Widdowson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.