Dancer wellness in the 21st Century

Post date: Aug 23, 2016 8:26:11 PM

I had a discussion today with some lovely young dancers who are at a couple of different vocational dance schools following ballet courses. When they signed up to the MIDAS Summer course I was delighted but also slightly worried - would they find my 'strong foundations' technical, theoretical approach to ballet class too boring? Beneath them perhaps? Not challenging enough?

Well, if it is, then they haven't told me that - but what came to light during a chat over lunch today was that they were actually desperate for detailed understanding of the fundamentals of technique, how the body works and to have someone explain things such as how pelvic alignment affects turnout, how to transfer body weight (and the mechanical principles behind transferring weight, balancing etc). I think they also really appreciated being taken back to basics at the start of class each day, thinking about pelvic alignment, thinking about engaging the upper back muscles to give breadth to the neck line etc etc.

I'm sure that for those lucky few children who go to vocational school at age 11, this type of work forms the basis of at least half of the first year / year 7. But what about those students who have stayed at home with their own excellent teachers, and have talent, ability and all of the other attributes to be accepted onto a full time programme at the age of 16? Perhaps they do spend time on these things during the start of the first year, but what if a student joins part-way through a 2 or 3 year course and goes straight into the 2nd year? Or what about the student who gets injured and needs to spend some time going back to basics once their injury is healed to the point where they are ready to start dance-specific rehabilitation. Is there a provision for dance specific rehabilitation in every vocational school? I thought that there was but now I'm not so sure. In this day and age, when there are more and more dance physiotherapists, dance science practitioners I had (wrongly, it seems) assumed that all of the schools would now have someone on board to do this kind of 'functional rehabilitation'. In my opinion, revisiting the basics of technique is really important. It's something that some dancers are really good at - perhaps this is where a lot of professional ballet dancers get their love of pilates from; that time spent with oneself focusing on the centre, on control and placing. If you've ever been lucky enough to watch a company class you'd have seen the dancers checking their posture and alignment before class, or in between exercises. But someone, somewhere has taught these dancers how to self-correct. Who?

Another thing to consider here is that lots of dance injuries are overuse, and can partly be attributed to technique. If you fix the injury but not the gaps in technique, the injury will return. But go back to basics and check the technique would help prevent the injury from returning. To quote a TV meerkat.... Simples!

Once I'd done my first degree and all the wonderful work experience I had during that, I was certain I'd be the perfect person to work at a dance school or college to help with injury rehabilitation, technique support etc and so I waited for the world to realise this and to start offering me that job..... I was too young and intimidated by 'important dance school director types' to even consider that I might have to sell this idea to them, after all it seemed to make so much sense!

Fast forward through 'the PhD years' and 5 years ago, I was still keen to work in that area, and having done all of my PhD research on the effects of fitness on dance performance ability and injury occurrence, published papers in academic journals and presented at conferences around the world I again sat and waited for that job. Hmmmm still nothing! So I set up MIDAS, decided to get my name known for being an expert on all of that and then surely someone would come along and offer me that job, right? Well, not quite... and while bills need paying I thought I'd get a proper job! A PGCE later and a few years of teaching science has actually improved my teaching of dance no end, BUT to cut to the chase, several things have happened over the last couple of weeks to confirm to me that I do know a lot about dance science, dance technique and healthier dance practice, and more pertinently, that I haven't missed the boat, that dancers-in-training are still keen to learn from me and more importantly can still learn from me, and make a difference to their performance, and possibly their health and happiness, as a result.

This blog wasn't supposed to be all about me blowing my own trumpet, it really wasn't. But it's a stream of (semi) consciousness after a couple of days of teaching and reflecting on the state of dance training that some young dancers experience. It has certainly surprised me (and not in a good way) that in 2016, student dancers are telling me that the only physio they get to see is a non-dance specialist who comes into school once a week, or that students that are injured are not given tailored exercise programmes to be doing while they are not taking full ballet class. It's enlightening to have 18 year old students at vocational schools saying to me things like "I wish you'd come and work at my school - no-one explains any of this stuff to us". I should add that this is only 2 schools, and I'm sure that other schools do have better support systems in place but I'd be interested to know what provisions ARE in place for those who are in full time training.