Jul 24, 20202 min read

Using This Time Wisely

Written by Dr. Brianne M. Dwyer, PT, DPT

With the pandemic rising and falling all over the country, one group of individuals continues to have difficulty… dancers. With studios slowly opening, theaters pushing back the upcoming seasons and companies augmenting start dates, what are dancers focusing on? While the future looks uncertain, one area is not, maintaining fitness and health levels. Here at Magna PT we offer dancers a wide variety of services ranging from dance fitness evaluations, pointe assessments, massage, Pilates to dance specific personal training.

Kathryn “Katie” Manger, Soloist Dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet is a CT native. During the pandemic, she has returned to CT. She has not been sitting this time out however. Katie has taken advantage of all the services Magna PT has to offer, from utilizing our in-house studio to our Dance Fitness Evaluation and Personal Dance Fitness program. She believes it has been successfully helping her strengthen an already high level of dance health while she waits to return to Pennsylvania Ballet.

Katie noted during the evaluation with Dance Medicine Director, Dr. Brianne M. Dwyer, PT, DPT, "that [she] has never had such a thorough evaluation". Our dance medicine team takes the time to make sure our artists are well taken care of, whether at the recreational, pre-professional or professional level.

What Does This Program Include?

The Dance Fitness Evaluation is a detailed hour long session evaluating musculoskeletal range of motion, strength, joint mobility, as well as balance, technique assessment, and cardiovascular endurance. Once the evaluation is complete, our dance medicine team provides the dancer with a personalized dance fitness program and a print up of all their results. The program is a team effort combining the dancer’s goals with the expertise of our dance medicine specialists helping the dancer stay as healthy, flexible and strong as possible to reduce injuries and maintain a healthy lifestyle.