Massage Therapy for Dancers 
Dance is a beautiful and powerful artistic expression of the external and transcendent within us; it calls upon the best in our bodies; it has been with us as long as we have walked on the earth. As soon as children walk, they want to dance. But dance probably makes more demands on the body than any other sport or occupation. Careers of professional dancers or dance students are often delayed, shortened, limited or ended completely by injuries.
Biological change is a universal component of the experience of adolescence and has implications for biological as well as social and cognitive development. Biological changes can have both direct and indirect effects on adolescent development. For example, growth can spur changes in how adolescents are viewed and treated by their parents and peers as well as changes in how adolescents view and feel about themselves. Pubertal growth can move adolescents into new social roles - such as that of romantic partner.
Amateurs—children or adolescents who study dance – often carry the injurious effects of it, even though they may not seem evident in youth, into middle – and old age they will gradually return to haunt them.
It is the joyful privilege of the massage therapist to enable dancers to dance, and to keep dancing, and to do so with as little pain as possible, so that the body is not bruised and without having to carry unhappy residues of pain into their later years. The massage therapist has the honor of lengthening the career of the professional dancer, and of helping amateurs and students of dance continue to pursue their passion without having to pay too high a price.
There is an unfortunate misconception that dance training itself is sufficient—that it establishes good posture that it teaches proper use of the body, that it develops and forms the muscles in health. Dance training is helpful in some of these respects, assuming the teacher is knowledgeable and well qualified. But even the very best dance training – and the very best are rare—makes extraordinary demands on the body. The demands of dance are different from the demands of everyday life. Like all other physical training, and perhaps more than most, dance training requires that the body be as well cared for, to correct and prevent injuries, and to help form not just a dancing body, but a body that is well functioning and free of pain in all spheres.
*It is customary when working with children that a parent is present during session with therapist.*
Debbie Stickney, LMT, NCTMB
FL License # MA35774 Nationally Certified 324052-00
Revised: January 18, 2008 |
