​Meeting Dancers’ Expectations at Alpine Physical Therapy

Special thanks to Kristi Moore, MSPT, program director for Alpine PT’s Dance Medicine outreach. 

As a physical therapist for many years, I want first and foremost to say that I love working with dancers! This population has a unique sense of body awareness and a strong motivation to keep dancing. 

In my quest to offer the best possible treatment for our area dancers, I pursued and attained top certification in Dance Medicine from New York Physical Therapy.

I was driven to understand dancers’ needs and to know how best to help them. Doing so helped me realize the unique demands they place on themselves and their bodies.

Knowing the unique needs of my patients and what they want to accomplish is vital and is especially important with my work with dancers.

This can be as simple as understanding the motions that dancers go through, including the terminology they use. Yet it can also be as complicated as understanding how their entire body is working to create a fluid dance motion.   

Through my specialized training, along with the experience I’ve gained over the years working with dancers, I’ve become a better observer of movement, especially observing dancers and what is needed to take a less functional dance motion and help it flow into a functional and elegant movement.

I’ve gained a deep respect for dancers and their ability to create movement that is both beautiful and at times extremely difficult. It’s always been my aim to help patients continue doing the activities they enjoy, and dance is no exception. 

In the event I am working with an injured dancer, I design the therapy plan such that she is able to continue dancing, often by making some modifications in the rehabilitation and training program. If the injury requires that the dancer take time off to heal, I do all I can to get her dancing again as soon as possible.
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On a final note, I’m also a huge proponent of injury prevention and education for dancers and attempt to help dancers understand how they can be better aware of ways to prevent an injury from occurring. 

For more information on our Dance Medicine approach at Alpine, click here.