A former Strictly Come Dancing choreographer, Kylie Hayes, has revealed that she will no longer be able to dance after falling off stage during a West End rehearsal
Kylie Hayes, who worked as a Strictly Come Dancing and West End choreographer has suffered from a devastating theatre fall, losing her career.
Kylie, 41, helped to choreograph routines on the show for over a decade and 12 seasons but was forced to give up dancing after she tore a muscle in her leg. The incident took place during rehearsals for West End production 42nd Street, and the star revealed that she fell off the stage when temporary steps were removed and she was in the “pitch black”.
She found out she had “torn” her musculotendinous junction, the joint between her Achilles tendon and calf muscle, and was signed off work for up to a year. She realised into her recovery that her 20-year career was over as she then suffered from extreme fatigue, and she has now launched legal action against theatre bosses.
She explained that the exit from the stage had been clearly marked and illuminated steps so that dancers could get on and off the stage, but after opening night they were moved.
“To this day I don’t know why this was done. But it cost me everything,” she said. “It was supposed to be a standard rehearsal run, we were testing out the lighting, stage exits, routines, places, costume changes and sets.”
She explained the details surrounding the incident and that she landed awkwardly after exiting the stage with a “massive thud” that stopped rehearsals.
“All the dancers stopped dead. I landed flat on my face with my leg outstretched. I was so embarrassed and did the British thing and said I was fine and tried to walk it off.”
However, as soon as she stood up her left leg collapsed underneath her. She explained that her “whole leg was numb” and felt like jelly or a “heavy bag of marbles”.
As someone who has been dancing since the age of two, and has built a career of nearly two decades around dance, this wasn’t a minor issue for Kylie.
“People say break a leg on stage but I never dreamed I would be the one to fall and it cost me my career. Dance isn’t just a career it’s my essence it’s who I am and my whole identity and all I have ever known since I was two,” she told the Daily Mail.
“To me not dancing is like having an amputation and losing a limb as I can’t use my feet anymore for what I was born to do. I am now grieving a career I once had. I lived for the stage, the buzz, the excitement the audience and all that was taken from me in that instant when I fell off that stage.”
She explained that now when she dances as she once did, she suffers from fatigue and can only manage 30 minutes or so before she is exhausted: “It was a massive realisation that I would not be able to dance at a high level in the West End again and would now need a new career outside dance. I had to put my tap shoes in the loft.”
The theatre company behind the production, 42nd Street 2023 Ltd has admitted liability for her accident per Daily Mail, but no potential damages figure has been set just yet.
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