June is National Safety Month. What Does This Mean for Dancers?

Courtesy of Dr. Adrienne Stevens

Dancers fly through the air defying gravity, fall to the floor gracefully on descent, and emerge no worse for the wear. They can appear to eat nothing, look frail, but be strong. These paradoxes can help or hinder dancers.

Have you ever been in a situation like this?

• You weren’t concentrating during the quick center combination and fell, twisting your ankle in the process. It hurt but you didn’t know what to do next. Tell the teacher? Suffer in silence? Keep moving and hope the pain goes away?

• You have just run into rehearsal from the street and you’re not warmed up but the rehearsal director wants everyone dancing ‘full out’? You think you might hurt yourself.

• Your friends offer you high caffeine energy drinks to ‘bump up’ your energy. You don’t know what exactly is in this mixture. Everyone is watching whether you’ll accept or not.

• You want your stomach to be flat and decide to skip eating everything except applesauce all day.

What do these scenarios have in common? Important decision-making opportunities that could lead to unsafe behaviors that put you at risk for current, future, or ongoing injury.

Everyday provides an opportunity to make healthful choices that can keep you safe or jeopardize your health. From wearing a seatbelt to flossing your teeth, to putting the cell phone down when you cross the street, actions that you do today become habits that set the stage for patterns in the future.

Be safe. THINK before you act.

Additional information on dancer safety:
https://www.iadms.org/blogpost/1177934/218813/An-Introduction-to-Dance-
https://www.dancemagazine.com/dancer-safety-2560949065.html
https://dancesafe.org/top-10-safety-tips-from-dancesafe/

Visit Performing Health for more information:
www.performinghealth.com/awareness-in-dance-nutrition/