Meet Dr. Danelle Dickson, Dance PT and ballet dancer!

Hello beautiful dancers!

Did you miss our live Zoom chat with Dr. Danelle Dickson last Friday? Then you missed an amazing opportunity to get your PT/dance injury questions answered by the extraordinary Dr. Dee from Washington DC. She's a ballet dancer who treats professional dancers, young pre-professionals, and amateurs alike. Working from her home on the east coast, she graciously and generously took time from her day to talk to us.

Lucky for you, I recorded it and uploaded it to YouTube! Check out the video below and hear what Dr. Dee has to say about treatment of dance injuries, the necessity of cross-training, and why she thinks dancers need to be considered athletes. She also answered the specific questions from our chat group, each of whom had a different dance background and experience. It was a fascinating - and fast! - 90 minutes.

Dr. Dee also talked about her new cross-training program, Dansebridge, which is available in the link below. Dr. Dee believes dancers don't necessarily need more classes when they want to improve their technique. She thinks working different muscle groups and in different ways can be more beneficial. Personally I love that the sessions are only 30 minutes long because these days, concentrating for long times is not easy.

Dr. Danelle Dickson's Dansebridge

Thank you SO MUCH, Dr. Dee! We loved meeting you and enjoyed hearing everything you had to say about ballet, training, and treatment.

Rest, Recuperate and Readjust: stretching and injuries

An injury is the body's message that you need to rest and recuperate. Most people know the common acronym: RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation). To which I add an -A (Advil or Aleve for inflammation reduction). Others add a P- for prevention.

Prevention to me relates to the third R of my R&R: Readjust.

First of all, let's make sure you have rested properly and are ready to get back into dance slowly after an injury.  This is an opportunity to work properly, beginning with the barre:

--Close your eyes and feel your weight on both feet. Prepare with 2 hands facing the barre rather than one hand at a time, if it's too difficult to stand with just one.
--Breathe deeply, be aware of when you are inhaling and exhaling on movement (e.g. exhale as you degage or battement away from you, inhale as you recover from a plie).
--Focus on turnout happening from the top of your legs, knees going over the second toe of your foot.
--Pull your arches up when you stand on both feet. Pull your knees up on both legs always.
--Feel the breath opening your back. Your back is a T formed by the spine and the arms. Energy goes through the entire T.
--Hips are lifted, glutes are loose not clenched. Remember you must relax before you can contract.

Whenever I have an injury (whether it's an ongoing -itis like tendonitis in my knee or ankle or acute like a fall or sprain from a turn or jump) I take extra time to warm up slowly, to stretch properly, and to focus on my alignment first and foremost.  Only once I am properly aligned do I approach movement off the barre.

I love this article with some tips on stretching exercises for ballet dancers. I also love this article from OSU about 14 common dance injuries and what to do for them. Injuries can be opportunities for improvement. Take the time to fix what's wrong and then you will be able to prevent injuries in the future and be a lot happier in the present.

Happy safe dancing~