Currently an adjunct faculty member for Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, I have the opportunity to work with pre-professional students every day. The unfortunate issue is that when they arrive at the university their bodies are often broken down with muscular imbalances, past injuries, misalignments and compensated movement patterns produced from excessive repetition, faulty habits, or gaps in their technique training. It not that what they have been taught is incorrect training, but when the body only moves one way, i.e. their strengths or set choreography in multiple repetitions, it adapts. The muscles then that aren't being worked, atrophy or weaken and compensation sets in. The bodies muscles groups work in a balanced way. When one muscles fires, the other relaxes. When muscles are not fully activated, alignment becomes faulty, compensation begins and injuries are created. The lack of knowledge and understanding of how to strengthen, fuel and stretch the body is crippling young dancers with back pain, knee pain, ankle sprains, torn ligaments and muscles.
As a dancer I dealt with an eating disorder, fractured tailbone, extreme back pain with scoliosis, ankle impingement, shin splints and multiple sprains all before the age 18. After years of studying dance, health, strength training and nutrition, I know I can help dancers be more informed in how to prevent injuries, work efficiently with their bodies and expand their capacities as an artist and an athlete.
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