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.

Healthy Dancers- Part II

I recently attended a meeting for the Dance/USA Taskforce on Dancer Health. It is a thrill to report that over twenty professional dance companies have implemented the post-hire health screen. Although more outcomes are still in development, one great benefit is the knowledge that dancers are acquiring in reference to their primary tool- their bodies!

I find it fascinating to learn what inherent or created imbalances exist both individually and within a company of dancers. There are some incredible people in the medical field donating many long hours for the well being of dancers.

One of the resources mention in the meeting was the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, aka IADMS. They have many articles on injury, injury prevention, healthy teaching practices and nutrition.

Here is an excerpt on fueling the dancer:

Nutrition Fact Sheet: Fueling the Dancer

To perform at their best, dancers need to be well fueled for classes, rehearsals, and performances. This paper will present a strategy for obtaining the energy needed for dance training and the right balance of carbohydrate, fat, protein, micronutrients, and fluids.

One important challenge facing many dancers is ingesting sufficient quantities of food to meet the energy demands of dance. The first step in planning a high performance diet is to be sure that the dancer is obtaining adequate caloric intake. The easiest rough estimate of how many calories a dancer requires during heavy training is 45-50 calories per kilogram of body weight for females and 50-55 calories per kilogram of body weight for males. For a more accurate assessment, dancers should consult a dietitian.

A low caloric intake will not only compromise energy availability, it can also lead to an under-ingestion of many micronutrients that could affect performance, growth and health. After calculating the number of calories needed, the next step is to estimate the necessary amount of carbohydrate, fat, and protein, the building blocks of the diets.

A dancer's diet should be composed of about 55-60% carbohydrate, 12-15% protein, and 20-30% fat

Healthy Dancers

Gone are the days of suffering through mindless aches and pains and starvation to reach a specific aesthetic. Not that aches and pains nor an aesthetic exist, but more and more dancers are becoming educated about their bodies and self care.

ABT has both published a new book and also has an upcoming seminar for students and pre-professionals. New York City Ballet just had a similar seminar as well. The Harkness Dance Center offers many programs for professional and pre-professional alike.

ABT Healthy Dancer Open House

AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE PRESENTS
ABT HEALTHY DANCER OPEN HOUSE
Seminars on Nutrition and Injury Prevention
Offered Free to Families, Students, and Instructors
Sunday, November 16, 2008, 12 Noon
Special Guest Appearances by Angelina Ballerina- and
Dancers of American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre will hold its first ABT Healthy Dancer Open House at its 890 Broadway studios on Sunday, November 16, 2008 from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. The Open House is a free event open to dance students of all ages across all disciplines, as well as parents and teachers throughout the New York metropolitan area. The event will include demonstrations by American Ballet Theatre-s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, a special appearance by Angelina Ballerina- and guest appearances by ABT dancers.

ABT-s Healthy Dancer Open House will offer seminars throughout the day from the following panel of ABT medical experts: Dr. William Hamilton, orthopedist, and Julie Daugherty, ABT physical therapist, will discuss injury prevention. Joy Bauer Nutrition will discuss healthy eating habits specific to dancers. Linda Hamilton, Ph.D, psychologist, will give -Advice for Dancers- from her monthly Dance Magazine columns. Special guest Angelina Ballerina- will lead demonstrations in safe stretching for children. Professional pointe shoe fittings by Capezio® will be available for students and pre-professional dancers.

ABT Healthy Dancer Open House kicks off the release of the new publication The Healthy Dancer: ABT Guidelines for Dancer Health, scheduled for release on October 20, 2008.
ABT Healthy Dancer Open House is sponsored by Payless ShoeSource®. For more information and to sign up for ABT Healthy Dancer Open House, please visit ABT-s website at www.abt.org/openhouse ( http://dancenyc.pmailus.com/pmailweb/ct?d=GSXJhQBzABAAABA9AAJI8g ) or call the Healthy Dancer Hotline 212.419.4383.

Career Transition....Professional Development?

First let me begin with a few questions: Is career transition a scary term? Is professional development available to performing artists? At what point do we begin thinking about the "what's next"?

Very few of us are so lucky to reinvent ourselves on the stage as many times as Baryshnikov or Gus Solomons Jr. But we don't have to leave the pursuit of dance as we mature or transition. Career Transition for Dancers is a great organization providing counseling, research tools and funding for professional dancers at any point in their career. The funding requires a minimum of seven years professional experience, but doesn't necessarily have to be a "career transition" it can also be for professional development.

I have many years left to dance, and last spring I received a grant of $2000 to assist with my interest in teaching Gyrotonic. The process was fairly simple and very informative as well. I recall a very humbling moment going through my contracts of years past and totaling my net income....well let's just say I have lived a rich life on very little money! Add that to the research that it takes as long to make a professional dancer as it does to make a doctor- an average of 20 years. When a dancer wants to pursue more education Career Transition for Dancers is a valuable resource.

Here's info on the grant that I received:

Caroline H. Newhouse Scholarship Fund
Remaining 2008 grant deadlines: Sep 3 & Nov 5

Provides $2,000 scholarships or grants to initiate an academic or retraining process or to help professional dancers with start-up money for a new business. Please note: Choreographing and teaching dance is not applicable for meeting eligibility requirements.

There is also a support group that meets in NYC:

"Midcareer Moves" is a dynamic support group led by Career Counselor, Anita Lands. This group helps dancers with professional, personal, emotional and psychological transitions and provides them with action steps and resources to move ahead.

The group meets monthly on Wednesdays from 6:00-8:00pm at

165 West 46th Street, Suite 701. New members are always welcome.

Next meeting: Wednesday, July 23
RSVP to groups@careertransition.org

I suppose that in essence we are always transitioning. Although we devote our lives to dancing, transitioning in reference to our careers should be part of how we evolve, not something to fear.

Fractured Atlas

So this resource has already been mentioned, but here are some more wonderful things that Fractured Atlas can offer.

Health care
Liability Insurance
Job Bank
Publicity Services
Development Grants
Special Discounts
Online Classes
Fiscal Agency

Fractured Atlas - Upload a Document to Scribd

Again through membership with Dance USA a membership to Fractured Atlas is free (Regularly $75). And an individual professional dancer membership to Dance USA starts at $30.

Adam Natale spoke at the recent Dancer Council at the Dance USA convention in Denver and also mentioned that Fractured Atlas can provide consultation for artists on their programs and any issues that occur with associated services. They truly work for the artists.

Read this document on Scribd: Fractured Atlas

"Dance of Pain"....hmm...healthcare?!?

A Hartford, Connecticut paper writes about a dancers pain.

On a personal note, gyrotonic is mentioned in the article, and I have to agree that it is a great rehabilitative/ preventative exercise modality for dancers.

Health care. Part II

In 2002 I read an article siting that nearly 4 out of 10 dancers didn't have health insurance or were under insured. In the last five years, the cost of doctor visits and insurance premiums have skyrocketed. Here are a few more resources for non-insurance based health care programs:

The Harkness Center for Dance is part of the NYU Medical Center and Health System. They provide free consultations with an orthopedic doctor and follow up with a physical therapist who specializes in dance injury. Additionally they will provide clinics for dancers, teachers and other medical professionals to prevent common injuries.

Dance Clinic
240 East 18th Street (at 2nd Avenue)
Ste. 21
212-598-6022

The Artist Access program is associated with the Woodhull hospital in Brooklyn, NY. They provide sliding scale fees or a trade of artistic services to patients for medical services.

AccessArtist - Upload a Document to Scribd

Springboard for the Arts in Minnesota offers discount community clinic with various services. They also offer a discount voucher to further defray costs.

Again the Actors Fund has a database of state by state offerings some of which are insurance based, and some of which are other programs.

I would love to hear how you address your health care needs and also what your company provides for you. Go to either:
facebook dancer forum- Dance USA
or
the performing dancers alliance on the google groups
and share your experience.

Read this document on Scribd: AccessArtist