‍

‍

“Dancing is more than just moving body parts: it is a pathway of expressing your deepest inner thoughts.” ~Normani Kordei

‍

Common Injuries:

• Hip injuries: snapping hip syndrome (also called dancers hip), hip impingement, labral tears, hip flexor tendonitis, hip bursitis, and sacroiliac joint dysfunction
• Foot and ankle injuries: Achilles tendonitis, trigger toe and ankle impingement
• Knee injuries: patellofemoral pain syndrome
• Stress fractures: metatarsals, tibia, sesamoids and lumbar spine
• Dancers are also likely to develop arthritis in the knee, hip, ankle and foot

‍

I’m injured, now what? Is my dancer career over?

No, your dance career is not over, but as dancers we tend to ignore injuries for the sake of dance. However, not addressing injuries quickly and efficiently tends to lead to worsening of the injury and then corelate with longer periods of pain and a more difficult recovery.   Therefore, we advocate for early intervention in order to catch issues quickly and avoid any period of not being able to participate in the activity you love, dance.

At Core Essentials Physical Therapy & Wellness Physical Therapy, one aspect our dance program focuses on is allowing the dancer to stay active in class, as long as they can do it safely without further injury and focus on rehabbing specifically to the individual.  Within this program we focus on identifying each dancer’s biomechanical impairments, strength/ flexibility imbalances and abnormal functional movement patterns in order to establish a plan of care that is specific to each the athlete.  This specialized plan of care will consist of manual therapy techniques, including soft tissue intervention, myofascial mobilization, and joint mobilization where indicated, neuromuscular retraining, and targeted exercises specific to dance.  Additionally, the long-term plan once the injury is resolved is to empower each dancer with tools and strategies which focus on preventing future injuries and assisting the dancer in achieving his or her personal goals.

‍

I’m not injured, how can Physical Therapy help me as a dancer?

Any athlete that pushes their body to perform at a high level is going to be prone to injury.  Therefore, we have created a program that focus on injury prevention through cross-training without compromising technique training.

This program will be tailored to the individual by assessing functional movements, static/dynamic functional tests, strength/flexibility, and taking into account medical history. The goal of this program is to allow dancers to achieve a proper balance between strength/control of movements and flexibility instead of relying on flexibility alone.

More specifically, we also have a Pointe Readiness program to encourage dancers to strengthen specifically to allow a safe transition to Point.

This will make growing skills much more enjoyable for everyone.

Meet our therapist:

Our specialty-trained therapist, Alecia, has a passion for treating dancers as she herself is a dancer.  She has been dancing for 23+ years, has been dancing sur la Pointe for 15+ years, and has worked as a dance instructor.  Her passion for returning these athletes to their highest level of performance with full injury recovery and prevention of future injuries is evident in the results that she achieves.

‍

‍