Alexandra Ansanelli

As a principal ballerina of the New York City Ballet and of The Royal Ballet of London, a foot injury was a devastation. Chair bound, for over a year, my life was a succession of doctor consultations. There were diagnoses from bone cancer to rheumatoid arthritis. It was a blessing to find Dr. Rock Positano, Director of the Non-surgical Foot and Ankle Service at HSS, who immediately had a specific plan of action to target this foot mystery. Dr. Positano’s vast education in foot and ankle disorders gave him a unique expertise to accurately diagnose my foot injury, not as plantar fasciitis, but instead as a plantar fascial tear. Being the foot doctor to many of the great athlete’s of our time, his forward thinking approach in using diagnostic ultrasound for the feet, confirmed that even though I showed signs that it was plantar fasciitis, something else was causing these symptoms. Dr. Positano explained to me through his studies typically there is an inaccuracy of clinical diagnosis of plantar fasciitis, due to a very high prevalence of plantar heel pain. My tear he said happened to be very large, and had almost completely torn off the insertion point of my heel bone! Even though I am not seven feet tall, my feet have created a lot of magic- finding Dr. “Rock” prevented my “game over”! I am forever grateful to Dr. Rock Positano and to HSS for being artists in their own right, and for keeping dreams afloat.