4dancers – Page 5

The Dance/USA Taskforce for Dancer Health – An Introduction

April 7, 2019 by 4dancers

Recently I was given the opportunity to serve on the Dance/USA Taskforce for Dancer Health, and attended the group’s semi-annual meeting in New York City. The Taskforce is the dance medicine arm of Dance/USA, an organization that serves the professional dance community in the USA. It is a small group, numbering about 100 nationwide — and there were 38 of us at the meeting. I have known a number of these dedicated professionals for several years, including the current Executive Committee:

Co-chair: Nancy Kadel, MD (Seattle)
Co-chair, Treasurer, Screening Co-chair: Heather Herod Cole, PT, COMT, CPI (Nashville)
Secretary: Kathleen Davenport, MD (Miami)
Screening Co-chair: Mandy Blackmon, PT, DPT – (Atlanta)

I’m pleased to be able to share information about the Taskforce and their work in dance medicine — please pass it on! – Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor

Dance/USA is a national service organization for professional dance – membership is open to dance company directors / managers / agents / producers and presenters / service organizations, as well as individual dance artists and students. The website’s home pages gives the Vision and Mission Statement:

Vision:

Propelled by our belief that dance can inspire a more just and humane world, Dance/USA will amplify the power of dance to inform and inspire a nation where creativity and the field thrive.

Mission:

Dance/USA champions an inclusive and equitable dance field by leading, convening, advocating, and supporting individuals and organizations. Dance/USA’s core programs are focused in the areas of engagement, advocacy, research and preservation.

Engagement: Dance/USDA engages and activates its network through meaningful programs, convening, and educational opportunities.
Advocacy: Dance/USA advocates for the increased visibility of, and engagement in, dance and for government policies that positively impact the dance field on a national, regional, and local level. In this area, the organization maintains an office in Washington, DC, to represent and advocate for the field of dance in Congress.
Research: Dance/USA provides rigorous, relevant, and accessible research for the dance field.
Preservation: Dance/USA provides resources and programs to advance the archiving and preservation of America’s dance legacy.

The Taskforce on Dancer Health is composed of medical professionals, all volunteer, who work directly with professional dance companies and professional dancers across the USA and Canada. Their mission is to maintain the health, safety, and well being of professional dancers, and it was formed in the winter of 2005 at the request of the Council of Managers for Dance/USA.

The Goals of the Taskforce are to provide experienced and expert health information and support to professional dance companies of all sizes and budgets (and genres). Two of their major efforts are in helping companies establish an Annual Post-Hire Health Screen, and a three-year project to track injury patterns in professional dance companies.

The Screening’s primary purpose is designed to detect potentially life-threatening or disabling medical or musculoskeletal conditions that might limit the dancer’s safe participation in their dance work. In addition, it is designed to determine the general overall health and fitness level, and to make recommendations based on the information gleaned in the Screen. On this website, 4dancers.org, we have had previous articles on screening and why it is an important tool for all dancers–professional or not. Currently there are over 30 professional companies which participate in the Dance/USA Screening Program.

Informational Papers:

An additional goal of the Taskforce is to serve as a resource for information on health and wellness. To that end, there are free informational papers available on the website. They are not meant to take the place of the advice of a medical professional. These papers are brief overviews of different topics, all written in everyday language — current papers are:

Vitamin D and Calcium: Tips for Dancers
Dancer Health Tips: Heat Illness and Hydration
Dancer Health Tips: Backstage First Aid Kit Necessities
Dancer Health Tips: Staying Healthy on Tour
Tips for Dancers on Anxiety
Tips on Depressive Illness for Dancers
Tips on Concussions for Dancers

New papers are released on the website and updated throughout the year, so it’s a good idea to check back periodically and see if there is new information to be found.

Dance/USA and the Taskforce on Dancer Health provide excellent resources for the dance world. Clearly it is aimed at professional dancers, but the information provided is valuable to studio teachers as well – especially in terms of the screens and informational papers. If you are not already familiar with it, I encourage you to take a look.

Here is a direct link to this section of the website.

For further questions contact: dancerhealth@danceusa.org

Dance Injury Prevention in Breaking

March 5, 2019 by 4dancers

I’m so pleased to be able to bring you an article on a topic we don’t hear too much about in the dance medicine world – Breaking – or “Breakdancing” as it is often referred to in the media – and how it affects the dancer. Nefeli Tsiouti Is a young IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine and Science) member from Cyprus, who has brought the art form forward, bringing knowledge and understanding to the injuries suffered in this field. She graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London) with her Master’s in Dance Science less than 3 years ago, and already has done much to further her passion about Breaking and concern about the dancers’ wellbeing. She is the founder and Director of Project Breakalign, drawing attention to this topic worldwide. She is also a researcher for the Cyprus Musculoskeletal and Sports Trauma Research Center, and is currently pursuing her Physiotherapy degree at European University, Cyprus. Nefefi won the Sports Therapist of the Year award from the international Federation of Holistic Therapists. She has an impressive resume already, and we will be hearing much more from her in the future. Please pass this on to all of your dancers / teaching colleagues, but especially those who work in this particular dance form.

– Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor

by Nefeli Tsiouti, MA, MSc

I will not stop writing articles until I can get all hip-hop dancers away from injury!

Psychologists say that if you have experienced a situation yourself, you are more equipped to relate better and help others who will go through similar situations. So here I am, after overcoming severe chronic injuries, some of which have not yet decided to fully go away, and some surgical experiences, I have decided to dedicate my life to helping others prevent injuries.

Dance gave me wings, as it does to everyone. But one day, when I met ‘Breaking’ (or Breakdance as known by the media), I was amazed! A very intriguing, social, upside-down, flipping around, creative dance style that offers creativity beyond the roof. It is literally one of the most uplifting and open-to-options dance forms that one can get involved with.

However, as positively unique as Breaking may be, because of the extreme physicality that is required to be able to perform it, if it is not taught progressively, and without the appropriate body conditioning, it may cause injuries to the body.

Breakdancer — Nefeli Tsiouti, photo by Anna Motou.

A big part of the mentality of a Bboy/Bgirl (Break-boy /Break-girl, the male or female who dances to the ‘break’ of a song – otherwise known as Breaker / breakdancer) is the constant fight to achieve. Bboys and bgirls set very high goals when practising their art form, and with that also comes managing an injury and dancing through it. They prefer to dance with an injury and keep developing, than to stop practising in order to rest and heal–and then return to dance.

This preference to continue while injured, was one of the answers dancers gave on the 1^st global Breaking survey I conducted with Dr. Matt Wyon (University of Wolverhampton – UK), on injury occurrence in Breaking. They stated that it was preferable to ‘continue dancing with the injury, but carefully’. From my perspective, this hunger and drive to become better than yourself every single day, and to always develop, is one of the most beautiful and rewarding elements of Breaking. The hard work that Breakers put in their craft, and the reward they feel when achieving their goal, when winning the battle, when completing their move, when spinning on that head, when landing properly on that elbow – all the crazy things that once looked supernatural, become systematic in their practice.

Generally, in Breaking the most common injuries occur on the upper body. The axis of the body is very often vertical in Breaking, therefore the impact on the joints and the demands for the upper body to generate the movement, is very high – but also unnatural, in terms of principles of functional movement as well as ‘typical’ ways of moving. A study that we conducted at the Institute of Sport, Exercise & Health at UCL (2015), showed that not only does fatigue have a significant negative impact on the stability of specific foundational breaking movements, but it can also reduce the force which breakers use to get into certain movements. This finding suggests that fatigue may lead to injuries – in relation to pressure and weight distribution. However, the more fit and in better condition the breaker is, the less likely it is that they will get injured ^[1].

It is essential to not put obstacles into this positive community of people who have built great skills out of nothing. In 2013, when I realised how broken I had become from dancing (18 years of dancing at the time), I decided to act on it and contribute to the hip-hop culture in a way that others hadn’t had the chance to do at that point.

Therefore, in 2013 I started a research project on the prevention of injuries in the breaking field – Project Breakalign. What we have concluded is that there is something missing for the breakers, and generally for many dancers in other forms as well. That missing ingredient is a tool…..A tool for dancers to educate themselves and embody in their body – i.e, the necessary information for prevention of injuries. My research team of 15 international researchers/dancers, and myself, conducted a 1.5 year-long project where we created the Breakalign Method. This is a conditioning program, based on the analysis of the biomechanical (meaning the mechanics of movement) and physiological demands of Breaking. More information on the Method and the project can be found at: www.projectbreakalign.com . The creation of the methodology was funded by the Centre National de la Danse, in France.

But, a moment of honesty is necessary here. Preventing injury in such a physical group of dancers may be done up to a certain point. From that point onwards, as dance scientists and researchers of the genre, we can reduce the risk of injury by implementing certain principles in the practice of Breaking – but the risk will always be there, depending on the spontaneity of the dancer, their fitness level, the flooring, their shoes, and many more elements…..that I could talk about for hours!

So this concludes this first introduction to Break Dancers and Dance Medicine / Wellness –stay tuned for #2 article, coming soon on 4dancers.org.

References: ^[1] Tsiouti, N., Constantinou T., Philip, K., Sanchez, E., Paton, B. (2016). Evaluating the relationship between fatigue, pressure and weight distribution on the upper limb in breakers. Revista Movimenta. 9(4): 659-664. (http://www.revista.ueg.br/index.php/movimenta/article/view/5622/3840)

Nefeli Tsiouti completed her MSc in Dance Science, supported by 3 scholarships from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. She has been dancing for 21 years, having as her main dance training classical ballet in Cyprus and Greece. She has obtained a Bachelors Degree in French Language and Literature from the University of Athens in 2009 and a Masters in Choreography from Middlesex University in 2011. She has been a Lecturer in Dance in Colleges and Universities across London since 2011. She is also the Artistic Director of Scope Dance Theatre since 2010, making hip-hop dance theatre using the artistic elements of the hip-hop culture.

Nefeli initially began training Breaking in 2007 and unfortunately obtained a very serious injury on her shoulder, which meant she had to stop any physical activity and have a medical operation in 2008. Several years after no dance activity, she moved to UK for her studies and began Breaking again and has been competing nationally and internationally ever since. Since 2013 she has been the Founder and director of ‘Project Breakalign’, a prevention of injuries research project for breakers. The aim of the project is to bridge the gap between dance medicine and science, and dancers, and to make the knowledge of research become as applicable as possible to the hip-hop dancers, and not only.

Nefeli won the Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund in 2014, choosing New York as her research destination. She was also awarded the Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship in 2015 in Genoa Italy for further research on injuries in breakers. She has also been awarded the Gill Clarke Resource Fund, the ‘Centre National de la Danse’ Funding in 2015 to develop the ‘Breakalign Method’ for Project Breakalign, the ‘Dance UK’s Dancers’ Mentoring Programme’, being mentored by Matthew Wyon, as well as being a finalist for the ‘Change Maker Award’ by London Inspires Awards.

Nefeli’s work over the past few years has focused on developing a new area of dance medicine and science research, which focuses on hip-hop dancer and specifically breakers. Project Breakalign has been at the forefront of bringing new information to academic research and translating it to reach the communities with the dancers who need it. Nefeli has devoted her work to the mission of reducing the risk of injuries and promoting a healthier dancer for longer, with Project Breakalign’s research, lectures, workshops and her active participation in international breaking competitions.

International speaking engagements include Brazil-UK Network in Dance Medicine & Science 2016 in Brazil, Performing Arts Medicine Association’s Annual Conference 2016 in L.A., Healthy Dancer Canada 9th Annual Conference 2016 in Saskatoon, International Association for Dance Medicine & Science Annual Conference 2016 in Hong Kong, Serendipity’s Blurring Boundaries: Urban street meets contemporary dance 2015 in De Montfort University UK, Kingston University’s PoP Moves Emerging Scholars Symposium 2012 in UK and Goldsmith’s University’ Conference of Contemporary Music & Dance 2012 in UK. In 2017, she will present the creation process of the ‘Breakalign Method’ at the Centre National de la Danse in France. For more info, watch the following trailer: https://youtu.be/zJjSoo6WAic

Nefeli’s professional performance and/or choreographic credits include London Olympics Opening Ceremony 2012, RIOT Offspring/Sadler’s Wells 2014, Open Art Surgery/Breakin’ Convention, Dance Umbrella/Barbican, B.Supreme UK Tour, Faraday’s Cage film/Company Bricolage, Barcelona International Dance Exchange, The Place, ELLE-Adidas MyGirl Global campaign 2014, Folk Dance

Remixed UK Tour (2014-15), Opera in Revolution 2015 in Cyprus, and more.

Published articles include a piece of research in Blurring Boundaries: Urban street meets contemporary dance by Serendipity (2016) and also an article about health in dance in Dance Today. Dancing Times (2014). More publications are expected from 2017.

Tsiouti, N., Constantinou, T., Philip K., Sanchez, E. & Paton, B. (2016). Evaluating the relationship between fatigue, pressure and weight distribution on the upper limb in breakers. Revista Movimenta. 9(4): 659-664

Anna Karenina, Happiness, and Dance Career Satisfaction

February 18, 2019 by 4dancers

Anna Karenina. Victoria Jaiani, Alberto Velazquez, and Joffrey ensemble. Photo by Cheryl Mann.

by Luis Eduardo Gonzalez

Anna Karenina premiered this past Wednesday at the Auditorium Theatre. The story was originally written by Leo Tolstoy in 1878, and been adapted into various media including opera, film, television, ballet, figure skating and radio drama. Yuri Possokhov took on the task of doing it for himself and as far as I’m concerned excelled. There is always more excitement as well as stress with a world premiere rather than something that has already been choreographed. There are so many aspects to work out in terms of production and seeing what does and doesn’t work on the stage, but what I have found most interesting is the way that Yuri has been able to simplify one of the most nuanced and complicated novels to fit a ballet setting without losing the essence of the story or the message that I think was originally intended by Tolstoy. The clarity that comes with having to simplify a story as nuanced as Tolstoy’s for the sake of something that works on screen or on a stage is that it makes it easier to draw the parallels and, in a way, draw a more profound correlation between the message of the story and life. The beauty of a masterpiece like Anna Karenina is that someone like Tolstoy spent most of his life writing this to articulate his thoughts and social commentary on the world around him. Having read the book, and seen a few of the movies I think specifically for us as dancers there may be more to learn from this story than initially meets the eye.

[Read more…]

Healthy Eating: Vegetarian & Vegan Diets For Dancers

February 17, 2019 by 4dancers

I’m pleased to bring you an article on healthy eating for vegetarian and vegan dancers from a longtime IADMS colleague, Derrick Brown, M.Sc. A lifelong dancer, teacher, and choreographer, Derrick is currently co-program manager and lecturer in Dance Science at the University of Bern, Institute for Sports Science, in Bern, Switzerland. He also works in the Netherlands, as a research fellow at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, and as a guest lecturer in health at ArtEZ University of the Arts, and the Coronal Institute of Occupational Health, People and Work – Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam.

For dancers who choose a vegan diet there is often a lack of information that applies specifically to dance. Derrick is working to remedy that situation, and we are pleased to share his knowledge with you.

– Jan Dunn, Dance Wellness Editor

by Derrick Brown, M.Sc.

Is it just a hype?

Click, zoom in, swipe up, left, or right on any social media platform and eventually you will come across someone extolling the dangers of meat and touting the virtues of a plant-based diets. At first glance you might believe that the entire world has gone ‘green’. However in a study published recently (see below) that researched 334 dancers from 53 countries, we can see that of those who opt for plant based diet, only a minority are emerging when compared to those who also consume animal products. Vegetarianism provides a catchall term for a variety of diets, which exclude the consumption of some, or all-animal products.

Contrary to popular claims, appropriately designed and managed vegetarian diets contain foods nutritionally sufficient for health, well–being and physical performance. Vegetarian dancers can meet their protein needs from primarily or exclusively (vegan) plant-based sources when a variety of these foods are consumed daily and energy intake is adequate.

However, the quality and timing of dietary intake is of key importance to meet the physical demands typical of high intensity, intermittent types of dance styles. Poorly planned, calorically restrictive and nutrient poor diets confer a host of deficiencies that diminish health and ultimately performance.

The current recommendations for dancers’ diets are:

– 55 % carbohydrate

-20–30% fat

-12–15% protein.

This recommendation is based on an omnivorous diet and is an acceptable start point for all dancers across different dance styles. Below are some simple examples that may aid dancers who opt for partially or all plant-based diets.

High-quality carbohydrates are the way to go. [Read more…]

On Love, Ballet, And Sleeping Beauty

February 2, 2019 by 4dancers

by Emma Love Suddarth

Emma LOVE? “Yeah I suppose it is a pretty great last name—thanks!” I can’t count the number of exclamations at the uniqueness of that last name. I can’t keep track of the number of love-themed gifts I received from secret santas over the years—not to mention the number of love-related puns I heard from friends, assuming they were the first. I never thought anything of it. It’s just a word after all, right? Saying goodbye to it as a last name five years ago (not to worry, it’s still there—just sandwiched as the middle now) made me think more on the word itself. As irony would have it, the very act of saying goodbye went hand-in-hand with the true weight of the word. It was an act of love.

More often than not, love is thought of through a fairytale-lens. Here at PNB we are currently deep in rehearsals for the iconic classic Sleeping Beauty—wicked fairies, sleeping kingdoms, flying nymphs, and one brave Price Florimund. It is only by true love’s kiss that he is able to defeat the wicked Carabosse and awaken the beautiful princess Aurora. Love is all-conquering. Even where the lovers might not “win”—Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, to name a few—the love itself transpired effortlessly. According to many iconic movies, books, and songs, love is just a force that we are swept up into. It happens to us, whether or not we are truly aware.

sleeping beauty ballet — Pacific Northwest Ballet company dancers in Ronald Hynd’s The Sleeping Beauty, which PNB is presenting February 1 – 10, 2019. Photo © Angela Sterling.

Yes, love as an initial happening—i.e. “love at first sight”—may come about without direct intent. However, love in a deeper sense, as a continuous, ongoing force, is a decision. It requires participation. Think about anything you’ve ever loved. Pets? It might be hard to love them when they’re chewing up your favorite shoes or shredding your expensive new rug. But you choose to continue to. Ballet—or any other passion? It might be hard on those days when you just want to give up because you can’t execute a single step correctly. But you choose not to. A significant other? It might be hard when he or she makes you more frustrated than ever. But when you love that person in the fullest sense of the word—in a way that requires you as an active member—you continue to.

Along with the decision to continue something, comes the effort to maintain it. Relationships require work; passions require work; love requires work. For love to have moments of effortlessness, effort must be put in. Oxymoron much? One tangible metaphor to illustrate this idea is in ballet itself. As a dancer, think about the most special moments you’ve had on stage. I’ll speak candidly from a personal experience as the Siren in George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son. In one of the more iconic moments, slowly rising from seated atop the head of my coworker Matt—the son—to standing against the front of his shins, my feet not even touching the floor, I felt love; love of the character, love of the story, love of the music, love of ballet. That love felt effortless. However, thinking back on the process, the love wasn’t always natural. There was the constant pain of a golf ball-sized blister encompassing my entire heel. There were the numerous tears from rehearsals that felt like flops. There was the sheer exhaustion from hours and weeks of intense repetition. There was a continuous trail of blood, sweat, and tears that led to that point. When people say, “love is not easy,” I believe this is what they mean. More often than not, some of our most cherished moments experience a similar journey. That’s what makes them worth it. That’s what makes them precious.

Ultimately, we must allow for love. One of my favorite ideas about love comes from a C.S. Lewis quote, and addresses this very thought: “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” While it might seem initially defeating, vulnerability does not have to be a negative. Asking us to be vulnerable means asking us to be open—to be whole-hearted participants. In loving a person, we are opening ourselves up by placing our hearts in their hands, allowing them to play an equal part in the journey of that relationship. In loving a passion, we are opening ourselves up to critique and frustration, because through those can we learn to experience it at a deeper level and find greater appreciation for it. This “vulnerability” lays the foundation for growth, for depth, for richer love.

Watching PNB tackle ten intense studio runs of Sleeping Beauty this week brought many different forms of love to light. None of them were without intention. I watched ballet masters praise tired dancers at the end of the week for a job well done. I saw Auroras push through nerves, pain, even illness. I watched boyfriends and husbands pass snacks to their exhausted fairy-friend-nymph-etc. at every five-minute break. No, love is not easy. But it’s certainly beautiful.

And it’s certainly worth it.

See Pacific Northwest Ballet perform The Sleeping Beauty! Performances run from February 1st to February 10th.

Contributor Emma Love Suddarth is from Wichita, Kansas. She studied with Sharon Rogers and on scholarship at Pacific Northwest Ballet School, and attended summer courses at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Ballet Academy East, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. She was first recipient of the Flemming Halby Exchange with the Royal Danish Ballet School and was also a 2004 and 2005 recipient of a Kansas Cultural Trust Grant. She joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as an apprentice in 2008 and was promoted to corps de ballet in 2009.

While at PNB, she has performed featured roles in works by George Balanchine, Peter Boal, David Dawson, Ulysses Dove, William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Margaret Mullin, Crystal Pite, Alexei Ratmansky, Kent Stowell, Susan Stroman, and Price Suddarth. Some of her favorites include the Siren in Balanchine’s The Prodigal Son, Jiri Kylian’s Petit Mort, David Dawson’s A Million Kisses to My Skin, William Forsythe’s New Suite, and Price Suddarth’s Signature.

She is a contributor to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s blog. She is married to fellow PNB dancer Price Suddarth.

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