Dance Specific Health Resources

Health care and injury management is an enormous issue for dancers and dance companies. Finding the right treatment can be crucial to getting a dancer back to work or training if injury occurs. Below are a few links to national organizations that can locate a dance/sport specialty service.

American College of Sport Medicine- they have members with dance medicine expertise.

American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons- you can search for a sports medicine specialist, but I couldn't find any advanced function to denote dance specific.

I did find this interesting article when searching the site for dance:

Keeping dancers on their toes
Dr. Richard Coughlin positively affects is the dance community in San Francisco. “Dance is an art form I came to appreciate when training in New York City,” Dr. Coughlin said. “It’s a beautiful combination of high culture and athleticism.”

While serving as a board member for a local dance company, Dr. Coughlin learned that, unfortunately, many performers are either uninsured or underinsured. “It soon became very clear to me that the dancers were a disadvantaged patient population,” he said, explaining dance troops often can’t afford to offer health insurance coverage for their members.

To serve these dancers’ medical needs and thank them for their commitment to the arts, Dr. Coughlin is one of the medical specialists who provides them with free care through UCSF’s Dance Injury/Prevention Clinic, which is housed in a new performance building, ODC Commons. The clinic recently expanded to offer general health services, such as nutrition counseling. “It’s become a healthy dancers’ program focusing on more than musculoskeletal injuries,” Dr. Coughlin said.

American Orthopedic Socity for Sports Medicine - you can search for a sports medicine specialist, but I couldn't find any advanced function to denote dance specific.

American Medical Society for Sports Medicine- you can search for a sports medicine specialist, but I couldn't find any advanced function to denote dance specific.

American College of Sports Medicine- Certified Professionals for health and fitness training.

International Association for Dance Medicine and Science- some great research including papers on bone density and female dancers as well as medical data on starting pointe.

Harkness Center for Dance Medicine- the best. Research, workshops and cutting edge specialists- but it is in NYC.