Chances are, there is at least one student you interact with daily who is dealing with trauma in their life. In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a massive study on childhood trauma and elevated it to an official public health issue. They measured adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which include things like physical and emotional abuse, neglect, poverty and absence of a caregiver, either physically or emotionally.
It's time to talkseriously about safety in dance education. As the physical and psychological demands put on student dancers escalates—thanks to competitions, social media and ever-evolving choreography—there is a pressing need to consider how we can successfully safeguard young dancers.
Q: I have adult ballet students who are asking me about foot cramping, soreness and achiness when dancing, especially in the heel and arch area. Could it be plantar fasciitis?
Physical therapist Meredith Butulis in action. Photo courtesy of Twin Cities Orthopedics
After a long tennis match or a basketball game, elite athletes often head straight to the locker room and hit the exercise bike. On first thought, this might seem to be overtraining, but in fact, they are pedaling as a way to cool down properly.
"All of our blood vessels get dilated and blood goes out to muscles when we are doing cardiovascular work," says Meredith Butulis, a physical therapist specializing in dance medicine. "The blood goes mostly to the leg muscles, and blood pooling there is a real phenomenon. If your blood doesn't get back to the heart and brain, you can pass out."
She goes on to explain there are two ways to recover from an intense workout: actively, using a low-intensity movement to gradually bring the heart rate down, or passively, with no activity at all. The latter requires little explanation—how many times have you seen a dancer do a run-through and follow it up by sitting down on the side of the studio in a static stretch? But for many reasons, including the real possibility of blood pooling that Butulis describes, a passive recovery is not the best choice for dancers.
Q: Despite stretching, my knees stay at least a foot off the ground when I sit or lie down in butterfly. When I gently push my knees down, I feel a sharp pain deep in the hip joint. What can I do?
