To get the day off to an inspirational start: in the video above, now going viral across the net and deservedly so, Dallas exotic dancer Genea Sky falls almost 15 feet from her pole, lands on her face, and keeps twerking until she leaves the stage for urgent medical attention. The fall, which occurred over the weekend, fractured the dancer’s jaw, which was operated on the next day, broke some teeth, teeth and sprained her ankle.
On the plus side, she provided a visual example of professionalism, dedication, and guts for the ages. Her diligence in continuing to dance even after the accident is a marvelous exhibition of character. A GoFundMe page set up to help pay her medical expenses has raised more than $20,000.
Good. Sky deserves it. She had a job to do, and by God, she was going to do it.
In the immortal words of lyricist Frank L. Stanton (1857-1927, in a verse that comic Henry Gibson made a career out reciting to the point that most people think he wrote it (as I did, until recently):
If you strike a thorn or rose,
Keep a-goin’!
If it hails or if it snows,
Keep a-goin’!
‘Taint no use to sit an’ whine
When the fish ain’t on your line;
Bait your hook an’ keep a-tryin’–
Keep a-goin’!
When the weather kills your crop,
Keep a-goin’!
Though ’tis work to reach the top,
Keep a-goin’!
S’pose you’re out o’ ev’ry dime,
Gittin’ broke ain’t any crime;
Tell the world you’re feelin’ prime–
Keep a-goin’!
When it looks like all is up,
Keep a-goin’!
Drain the sweetness from the cup,
Keep a-goin’!
See the wild birds on the wing,
Hear the bells that sweetly ring,
When you feel like singin’, sing–
Keep a-goin’!
Because the show really must go on, and Genea Sky showed us that that is more than an empty cliché. It is the essence of the human spirit.
Ethics Alarms 
I think we are pushing the show must go on idea beyond what I think is ethical.
I agree that people need to pick themselves up following some disaster. Sure, getting right back up on that metaphorical horse is what successful people do but this woman injured herself and may not have known the extent of her injuries. Is the show going on worth the potential long term consequences of not remaining immobile until a medical evaluation could take place.
The ethical manager should have immediately stopped the show to render assistance. The ethical audience would understand.
I agree. It is moral luck that she didn’t make her injuries any worse (or maybe she did). I think she had a responsibility to stop before further damage could have been done. There is a reason we tell people not to move after an injury.
The first step is to figure what is going on here. The video only shows her falling and then get back up to “twerk” for a few seconds. It is edited somewhat deceptively to loop back and forth, making it look longer than it might have been.
My guess is she got up to twerk just long enough to show the audience she was alive and substantially ok, before quickly hobbling off stage. She appears to be twerking towards the backstage (before the video is rewound making it appear she hobbled forward).
I too agree with Chris Marschner and JP. Almost any human being who takes such a fall will be injured to some degree, would likely sustain a concussion , and would certainly suffer from shock. Indeed, it was in a state of shock that caused her to “keep going,” not any form of heroics. Yes, and ethical manager would have immediately stopped her and taken her for medical treatment. But so should an ethical audience have helped her. And what about that asinine video taker who narrated her continued heroic sexual moves as if she’s just totally amazing. The afterwards video selfie proves she had to have suffered a concussion… just as NFL players sustain brain injuries!! …and she wasn’t wearing her helmet. Her head slammed onto a solid floor so hard that it broke her jaw and required immediate surgery. This should be an Ethics Dunce Award to the club owner and the club audience.
In the Immortal Words of the ironically named band, Smashmouth:
“Then she hit her faaaaaaaaaaaace, Now I’m a believer!
Not a traaaaaaaaaaaace, of skin on that floor!
I’m in awe, ooooooh yeeeeeeeah,
I’m a believer, I couldn’t catch her, if I trieeeeeed.”
“I thought height was more or less a giving thing,
The higher I got the more I fell oh yeah,
What’s the use in tryin’?
All you get is pain,
When I wanted sunshine I got rain”
It struck me she was probably in shock and continued “dancing” almost involuntarily. Fifteen feet off the floor? Five feet higher than a basketball basket? Where the hell is OSHA? What are the ethics of going to titty bars?
I’m not a big fan of “twerking,” either.
I also assume she was concussed.
>> Where the hell is OSHA
Same place for any performing art (acrobats, lion tamers, etc.). Aside from providing a properly anchored pole, there is not much to be done when the job (dancing high up on such pole), has inherent risks, especially when those risks directly contribute to the value of the job.
Bingo.
And those same risks apply to the audience. If a boxer in the showcased bout is knocked out 30 seconds into round one the audience does not get their money back. The show is technically over.
Once that performer hit the ground, broke her jaw and several teeth, the performance was effectively over. That which occured subsequently cannot be legitimately called part of the perfomance. We call it many things but performance is not one of them. There are plenty of other dancers to perform for anyone fool enough to demand it after this occurred.
The people who run gentlemen’s clubs are not exactly known for their high ethical standards. Nonetheless, the manager of the establishment when notified should have immediately stopped the performance. I can’t think of anything less erotic than watching an injured stripper perform.
That’s not the code, though. I finished a performance as El Gallo in the Fantastiks after suffering a concussion and fractured bone in my back. Of course, I was 20. The next year, I continued performing a musical revue 6 nights a week despite a terrible case of bronchitis, because we had a contractual commitment and tickets sold. I damaged my lungs, and they didn’t heal for about 10 years.
In my theater company’s production of “Dear World,” the male romantic lead knocked himself cold mid-performance one night. The stage manager stopped and then cancelled the show, though the actor woke up quickly back stage and wanted to go on. In retrospect, I think she was right, given what I’ve learned about concussions since then. But at the time, I would not have cancelled. (I wasn’t there that night.)
Yes, I am known in the DC theater community as a “the show must go on” fanatic. And I’m proud of it.
Well, contrary to this post, how about the St Louis Blues v Anaheim Ducks last night being canceled with 7:50 remaining in the 1st period because STL Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester collapsed on the bench from a cardiac episode?
Never heard of such a thing. Players are injured, sometimes grievously, in sports all the time, and the games still go on, and should. When Tony Conigliaro was hit in the face with a fastball in a 1967 game at Fenway Park, it was obvious that he was in mortal peril, but they finished the game, and should have.
You are right but the game was paused to render aid. Tony C did not get up and “walk it off”. He was taken to the hospital.
Ms Skye or whatever her name is was not the only performer that evening. It is one thing to play when hurting quite another when injured.
Well, you had a contractual obligation to perform although I imagine you had a stand in. That’s a little different than a pole dancer who could have probably been replaced by one of the other girls with similar talents. Probably the management had previously had her sign a waive of responsibility but clearly they should have stopped the show.
She walked right off after doing her last twerks and realizing it was physically impossible to continue. (We didn’t have a stand-in.)
I am not surprised that nobody came to her aid… that’s what you get when you are surrounded by a bunch of pricks.
Tom’s here all week, folks!
I just watched the video for the first time. I am not sure she was twerking as much as she was writhing.
Why is pole dancing not an Olympic sport? Those girls are as athletic as at least half of the Olympic athletes. I like curling, for example, but bowling with big rocks and sweeping the ice doesn’t compare with Mercedes on a fifteen foot pole.
I marvel at how easily many of those girls climb the poles and make like Tinkerbell. Most of us couldn’t climb two flights of stairs without being winded, fergawdsake.
Yes, let’s get the IOC to replace curling with pole dancing! It would be certainly more interesting than watching random guys sweep the ice with a big rock.
The sad things are these:
Many of the female Olympian Curling athletes are prettier and have better physiques than most of the dancers at some gentlemen’s clubs that I have been told exist.
In one of these clubs a livestock auctioneer is reputed to have involuntarily started taking bids. Some of the others in attendance said it was an understandable mistake.