At BalletMet, dancers work hard to maintain a strong and
healthy physicality in order to perfect their art. This is not easy. Dancers often perform movements that are
unusual and hard on the body, causing strain or in some cases more serious
injuries.
Luckily for BalletMet’s company dancers, they have the
luxury of receiving free services from Hope Davis. Hope is a certified athletic trainer who
works with BalletMet through the Ohio State Sports Medicine department.
According to Ms. Davis, the market for certified athletic
trainers has expanded significantly over time.
Other professionals that share Hope’s title are typically found on the
sports field, but more recently, they can be found in schools and in performing
arts organizations.
Ms. Davis says she considers dancers to be performance
athletes (along with gymnasts, musicians and others), and she thinks dance
should be recognized as a form of sport.
She says that there are specific types of injuries for every sport. For example, high-impact sports such as
football and soccer are often correlated with collision injuries. Injuries in dance can be acute or
traumatic. Most of them are chronic in
nature and build up over time. Hope
explained that many injuries go ignored by dancers, because they do things with
their bodies that are typically not normal, so they are not as concerned when
their bodies start to feel sore or strained.
Injuries are often swept under the rug, in fear that they may hold the
dancer back.
When Davis
was just 5 years old, she started dancing with hopes that the discipline would improve
her awkward composure. She loved to
dance, and worked hard at it too. She
would occasionally encounter minor injuries, like any other dancer. However, one back injury left her bedridden
for weeks. During this time, Davis saw multiple
doctors, most of whom gave her the same piece of advice: stop dancing. She didn’t want to stop, so she kept seeing
different doctors, hoping for a different opinion. Eventually, one doctor fixed Hope’s back
defect, and she was able to return to dance.
Her experience with overcoming injury inspired her to help other dancers
do the same.
Educating dancers on what to do to prevent injuries is one
of the biggest parts of Hope’s job. She
teaches her clients specific exercises to help them be less susceptible to
physical damage.
A typical day in the life of
Hope Davis
·
8 a.m. - 10 a.m. - Start at clinic
·
10:15 a.m. – arrive at BalletMet and teach a conditioning class with
pre-professional dancers for 45 minutes
·
11:00 a.m. - lunch break in between meetings with dancers
·
1:00 p.m - 4:30 p.m. – “open for business” in her BalletMet office
Davis
works very closely with the BalletMet dancers, seeing anywhere between three
and nine BalletMet dancers a day. She is
on location every day to work with them, and is with the dancers before,
during, and after all performances. When
dancers visit Ms. Davis, she assesses any new or preexisting injuries and
determines whether treatment requires a doctor.
Sometimes all she has to do is first-aid work and/or taping, but she
stays prepared for any and all things.
Thanks to Hope’s assistance, BalletMet is able to keep their dancers on
their toes and on the dance floor.
