Yep. I got to meet 5 professional dancers!

     This week I got to work with a principle ballerina, two world champions, and two company dancers. Never in a million years would I imagine I would get to see so many professional dancers. Out of the 5 dancers only 2 were treating injuries. The others were working on flexibility and strength to improve their dancing. We even had one aerialist come in to simply to work out. Dancers burn hundreds of calories dancing 8 hours a day, so why do they continue to work out outside of dancing?

    Most professional dancers are not dancing 365 days a year. A dancer from the San Francisco Ballet Company explained that American ballet companies do not pay their dancers when they are not in a show and during breaks. This means most company dancers are still auditioning yearly. Therefore, dancers are constantly training to maintain their strength to protect their bodies.  Also the studio trains the artistry of dance and teaches choreography, leaving it up to the dancers to train to meet the athletic requirements of dance. To keep in shape dancers work out and stop by their physical therapy office for tune ups.

     During secession at Foothills the patient first completes the given exercises. For example, a ballet dancer treating hip flexor pain will stretch the sore muscles and complete both exercises that cautiously strengthen and stretch the muscles. The physician will also throw in exercises not related to the injury to improve the patient's overall strength.  The after they complete all of their exercise the physician will manually work with the muscle. This could be either by massage or a weird technique called flossing. To floss a muscle the physician takes a metal tool and scrapes it along the muscle fibers. Flossing removes any excess scar tissue to clear up damaged areas of the body. When the physician is done working the athletic trainer will give the patient ice before they leave to decrease any inflammation caused during the secession. 

    Now, there are many things a dancer cannot do without a physical therapist to improve pain; however, stretching and strengthening sore muscles before class can easily be implemented. A teacher cannot give individualized attention to each student’s weaknesses, so it is important that all dancers take care of their own body and not push their limits too far.