The Australian Ballet is busting myths about injuries, and helping athletes from other codes overcome theirs

The nation's most exceptional athletes reside in football-devout Melbourne, although they don't perform in stadiums, nor do they feature on the nightly news.

They're the dancers of The Australian Ballet.

Measuring physical feats of repertoires against professional sports is difficult because dancers cannot wear GPS devices on stage and who else does a grand jeté en manége?

Observers can only wonder.

An American in Paris audiences have recently been marvelling of the performers' superior athleticism and endurance.

How many sportspeople could do four shows — or games — in one weekend?

Some former athletes and health professionals understand both disciplines.

«Having been on the other side of the fence, it's incredible the amount of work they put in just to get out onto the stage,» former North Melbourne footballer Sam Wright says.

As an injured player, Wright spent time rehabilitating with dancers. He has since been employed at the ballet as a welfare boss.

«My initial thought coming in here to rehab was embarrassment,» he says.

«I thought I was working hard [in football].

»I would say the dancers are on par, if not more professional athletes than AFL, just because of the sheer demand of what they do and what they put their bodies through."

Ballet mistress and rehabilitation specialist Megan Connelly agrees.

«They're way ahead of most because in sport you don't have the diversity of movement, and you also, in dancing, have the expectation that it's got to be pretty seamless, and you can't show the effort,» she says.

«Footballers show their strength, and you can hear it and you can see it on their faces, and we've got to produce all sorts of movement without necessarily showing how it might feel.

»It's body, mind, and soul — it