Physiotherapy for Dancers

 With Natalia Sosnovtseva

Dance is a form of art and expression, and for some of us, it is a sport and our livelihood. It is an activity that can use our entire body and musculoskeletal system, as well as mental rigor, dedication, and patience. It means a lot of different things to us and can require different demands on our bodies depending on the type of dance, stage of life, and our participation in it. As a Physiotherapist, I've had the privilege of helping many dancers recover, prevent injuries, and perform at their best. In this blog, I will talk about how Physiotherapy can make a real difference in the world of dance.

The Unique Challenges of Dancer Injuries

Dancers face unique challenges when it comes to getting hurt. Mastering dance techniques requires long hours of training, and dance is physically demanding. It requires a lot of strength, endurance, and flexibility. Dancers are prone to injuries in their hips, knees, feet, ankles, back, rib cage and shoulders, spanning nearly every part of the body. These injuries can have a big impact on a dancer's life, making it difficult to attend classes, rehearsals, competitions, and performances.

The Role of a Physiotherapist in Helping Dancers

As a Physiotherapist, I can look at both how well the individual joints and muscles are working, as well as how they work together to perform a dance movement or technique. From my experience, I know how well the body can develop compensations for core weakness and am trained to spot movement patterns and muscle imbalances that can lead to injuries.

We use a range of tools to figure out what's causing the pain. A big part of the diagnosis comes from the initial interview and taking a thorough history, then using hands on testing to examine and confirm the specific issue. We test for bony, muscular, tendon, joint, nerve and ligamentous injuries to rule them out and refer to other Healthcare Providers if further investigation is needed.

Common conditions that can affect a dancer include back, hip, knee and foot pain. With back pain, we look at how the back extensor and hip flexor muscles work together, and look at how the deep back, abdominal and pelvic muscles work in specific dance movements and positions. With hip pain, we test for common types of hip injuries and causes of hip pain. We look at the health of the hip flexor muscles, the hip joint and labrum, and the surrounding joints, including the sacroiliac and low back joint. We assess factors that contribute to clicking hips and the source of the clicking.

With foot pain, we perform differential diagnosis to determine the cause, which can include plantar fascia, the Achilles tendon, the ankle joint, muscles and bones of the foot as some examples.

We also pay close attention to how dancers move and breathe and perform an assessment of core stability and breathing. We determine the cause and contributing factors to the injury and then create a personalized treatment plan to fix these issues and help dancers get back to doing what they love.

Treatment Plans

Each dancer is unique. We consider factors like the dancer's experience, age, lifestyle factors, and the demands of the specific types of dance. We also look at the contribution of hypermobility, flexibility and instability around joints and how these affect the individual dancer. Our plans include a large portion of education about how the body works, the relevant anatomy, and how to move better and prevent future injuries. Our bodies are very good at finding ways to compensate for poor core stability, and we look at whether we need to retrain these muscles while modifying the participation in dance.

To give another example, with hip issues, we work with the dancer to address the specific factors contributing to the hip problems and make a plan to improve hip and pelvic muscle control with dance specific movements including turn out and jumping. With foot and ankle pain, depending on the cause of the issue (which can include sesamoiditis, flexor hallucis longus tendinopathy, tibialis posterior muscle tendinopathy, and Severs Disease, among others), we may recommend a specific program of exercises to help strengthen the foot and ankle muscles to improve participation in dance techniques, whether it is landing effectively or improving turn out and core control.

We use hands-on or manual therapy techniques, including myofascial release techniques, fascial techniques, joint mobilizations, neuromuscular retraining, therapeutic and pilates-based exercise training, and special taping techniques to get dancers back to their best.

Injury Prevention and Prehabilitation

Preventing injuries is a big part of what we do. We look at what might be causing injuries, including parts of the body and how the body moves as a whole, and make recommendations to reduce the risk. These recommendations can include specific exercise programs, movement and technique retraining, warm up and warm down techniques, and are designed to help dancers stay strong and avoid getting hurt.

Collaborative Care

This will mean different things to different dancers. A dancer’s Wellbeing and Holistic Health is the most important goal at Physio Pilates NP and the dancer is in the center of the decision making regarding the treatment to reach their goals. We want to make sure that our treatment plan fits with the dancer's training and performance goals. Working in collaboration with the Dance Instructors, other Healthcare Providers and Exercise or Movement Specialists ensures everyone is on the same page and ensures the best possible results.

Physiotherapists play a unique and vital role in helping dancers stay healthy and perform at their best, reaching their goals and excelling in their art form. We understand the demands of dance and create personalized treatment plans to get dancers back on their feet. We hope this blog helps explain the role of physiotherapists in the world of dance. If you have any questions or need some help for your dance related injury, please reach out and give us a call or email.