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“Ballet dancers are elite athletes... their ability to endure pain is astonishing”


PHOTOGRAPHS: ASH


Main picture: ENB dancer Crystal


Costa stretches her body to the limit Above right: ENB performing La Corsaire


Right: Dr James inspects a dancer’s shoulder sprain


specialist treatment). With 20 years’ experience in the specialty, he’s noticed it is a much healthier environment for dancers now than it used to be. He says: “Old-school artistic directors felt pain had to be pushed


through, but that thankfully doesn’t happen any more. There are still a few dancers who hide the fact they’re in so much pain, that they have stress fractures, but now dancers have fitness regimes programmed for them individually by professionals who are looking at strength, endurance and stamina.” But Dr James says there is “still a lot of pain and suffering” in ballet


because of the intense stress dancers put their bodies through, adding: “Sometimes it is surprising how graceful and smiley they look knowing what pain they’re in.” Sitting in the auditorium watching his patients dance, Dr James can’t


help but feel a huge swell of pride. He says: “I have first-hand knowledge of the pain, the blood, the sweat and the tears that they gave to make it look so graceful. Ballet dancers are real elite athletes who use and abuse their bodies like no others – their ability to endure pain is astonishing.”


Grabbing opportunities A self-confessed fitness enthusiast, Dr James has tried most sports but has never been tempted by a pas de deux or entrechat. He laughs: “I have never tried ballet – and even if I had, I’m not sure I would tell you.” A keen runner, he has also tried karate, horse riding, scuba diving and skiing, and even swam competitively until 2009 when he took a one-year sabbatical with his family to work in Australia. Having “had a go at most things” when it comes to sport – it’s a similar


story when it comes to his medical career. For the father-of-three, who has two sons “doing various things around the world” and a daughter


following in his footsteps and studying medicine, it is important to grab every opportunity. Variety has been a running theme throughout the medic’s 30-year


career, from first working in orthopaedics and accident & emergency at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, he spent his GP vocational training in Southport, worked as a rural GP in the Wye Valley in South Wales, and became a GP with special interests (GPwSI) in lower limb orthopaedics. He says: “I enjoy seeing variety in my career – I know people who have done sports medicine and others who have done political stuff working in the management structures of the various PCGs, PCTs and CCGs. “I am very lucky to have done all those things (and to do what I do with the ENB) in an era when they were developing, because almost certainly nowadays I would have needed a diploma in sports medicine or post graduate education, but I got where I am by getting experience, making contacts and networking.” To those interested in a career in general practice, he says it is a specialty that offers a lot of freedom in a working week, allowing GPs to “build a portfolio to keep your week varied.” At the moment, Dr James is thoroughly enjoying the challenges of being a busy GP in Southampton and the ENB’s company doctor in London. Outside of medicine, his other passion is music – he plays tenor saxophone in a windband (the clarinet “just for fun”) and he also plays in a quartet. He even carries out his own instrument repairs. So, at the age of 54, is he considering slowing down? He laughs:


“Retirement is not that far ahead and I might start thinking about changing the way I do things in the next couple of years. I may reduce my hours, I may not, or maybe I will go into saxophone repair full-time!”


Kristin Ballantyne is a freelance writer based in Glasgow


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