West end choreographer gets Imperial lab dancing

An Imperial research team has been dancing up a storm under the direction of a West End choreographer they helped to get back on his feet. As one of the UK's leading stage and film choreographers, Anthony van Laast's life revolves around his ability to push his body to its movement limits. Dancers are, by many metrics, pretty close to physical perfection Professor Justin Cobb However the intense nature of life as a professional dancer had left its mark, and last year Anthony found himself unable to move with severe hip problems. "If I wasn't able to dance again I have no idea what I would do," he says, contemplating a future that lay before him just a few months ago. Looking for treatment that would allow a full return to his profession, Anthony turned to Imperial's Professor Justin Cobb, chair of orthopaedic surgery and director of the MSk research lab at Charing Cross Hospital. For Professor Cobb and the MSk team, Anthony's condition was not unexpected. "People who wear their joints out early in life often aren't normal people; they're people who are often more physically defined than normal," says Professor Cobb.