<p>I haven’t been on this site in eons, but I wanted to see if this topic was being discussed. One word: ADELE!!! Today Keith Urban announced that he is having throat surgery, too. At my D’s school, the voice instructor is talking about Adele (smoking, technique) as an object lesson and a caveat to all voice students. You are the only one who can protect your voice. The casting agent/director only care about opening night and the “wow” factor. They could care less if you trash your voice because there is always more cannon fodder to be had. This is particularly true of the vocal pyrotechnics many are expecting from female singers these days. Back to Adele. The publicist can put a good face on it, but Adele had a vocal hemorrhage and the risk of scar tissue is quite high. If you are going for a gravelly sound without much range, that might be OK, but that’s not the sound most MTs want.</p>
<p>As for dancers, yes, it is a wretched profession when balancing the degree of work required to gain mere proficiency with the length of the career. The last time I heard stats, the average age of “retirement” for a dancer was about 26 due to injury.</p>