Nick Allen, the man behind the mended muscles

Jun 24 2010 By Lorne Jackson

What do rugby players and ballet stars have in common? Aches, pains and a treatment guru, writes Lorne Jackson.

There are certain places you would expect to find a ballerina.

Pirouetting across the stage of the Hippodrome, for one, drifting and billowing to the music of Tchaikovsky.

But what about blocking up a doorway while hobbling on a pair of crutches?

Hmmm. Not so much.

Yet that’s exactly what I’ve just encountered, though the situation can easily be explained by the nature of the doorway.

It leads to the Jerwood Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Dance Injuries. The centre has been built on a wing of the Hippodrome, though it doesn’t have the high profile of its razzle-dazzle neighbour.

The Jerwood is the hidden world of ballet, in many ways its guilty secret.

Glimpsed through a pair of opera glasses, ballet can seem effortless and exquisite. But beneath the tutus and tights lurks exquisite pain... and relentless punishment to the body.

Which is where Nick Allen comes in, the clinical director of the Jerwood.

He’s the man I’m here to see, in an attempt to understand the remorseless physical rigours involved in the highest levels of dance.

The Jerwood was built to cater to the needs of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Though as he shows me round the centre, it becomes clear that Nick’s first love isn’t BRB.

Or his second or third, come to that.

The South African’s passion is for sports. Rugby in particular. Previously, he was head of medical services for Gloucester Rugby Club, and he has also been a national squad therapist for the England hockey team.

Before accepting the commission to work with BRB he had never even seen a ballet. He hasn’t seen that many since. Rows of signed and framed rugby shirts hang from his office walls. A ballet dancer once suggested to him that he should hang a signed tutu alongside them.

So far that tutu hasn’t materialised.

It’s unlikely that Nick will be at this week’s BRB performance of Swan Lake, either. But that doesn’t mean he lacks respect for the suffering that dancers put themselves through for the sake of their art. He explains that they push themselves even harder than the England football team.