My mom told me I could dance as much as I wanted as long as I got an advanced degree in the medical field. That’s an offer I couldn’t refuse. I danced for twenty years before it was time to hold up my end of the deal. In that time I danced at every level from pre-K to professional, performed internationally, was a founding dance company member, and got my BFA (in Dance, naturally.)
Physical therapy felt like the most natural choice because physical therapists are movement experts. The study of movement aligned with my dance background, and I started to think about how I could improve my own longevity in the performing art that I love so much. I started PT school in May of 2020, and graduated (and passed boards!) this year.
So… what is Baseline Dance? A few different things.
It is an organization that provides dance medicine consulting services to adult dancers in Miami, Florida. Our goal with Baseline Dance is to provide adult dancers, who may not have a dance company physical therapist on staff, access to 1:1 care. Baseline Dance’s services are geared toward professional and freelance dance artists, collegiate and university dance students, and dance educators.
One of the most valuable things I learned in PT school was how to find and read research. I was amazed when I became aware of the vast quantity of scientific research available in the rehabilitation and athletic performance communities. Reading these papers answered questions I’d had for years about alignment, how to improve my technique, and understanding common ways that dancers get injured. I realized later how inaccessible this material is to non-medical people in the dance community. It took me three (long) years of hard work as a PT student to be able to read and understand the medical jargon.
We want to use Baseline Dance as a platform to distill dance medicine research articles into short, accessible blog posts for those non-medical people in the dance community. One day, we would like to see the organization providing continuing education courses for dance artists and educators to promote teaching and performance longevity within the field. But… baby steps!
Eventually, we want to offer a digital product to dancers to fine-tune their technique and guide their cross-training based on their unique technical demands. This is not a generic “workout app” for dancers. Each dancer has a unique body, background, and expectations for performance. We intend to pair movement analysis with evidence-based strategies from the dance medicine and athletic performance literature to formulate training plans for dancers to reach their movement goals.
Our last (but not least) area of focus is giving back to the dance community with pro-bono dance medicine consulting services. Personally speaking, I entered a dance career because of my passion for the arts – not because of the money. The intention is to create a time for dancers experiencing pain to actively reflect and seek advice on if they would benefit from therapy services or if technique modification recommendations may help decrease discomfort in the studio. This is for dance artists who are unable to financially commit to therapy services. You are not alone — we want to help you too.
At Baseline Dance we help dancers find their starting point, develop performance goals, and work diligently to get them there. We are on a mission to make dance science literature accessible to dancers, to provide insight into how to optimize the human movement system, and to provide dancers with solutions to their movement goals by defining their baseline abilities and working with them on the skills they need to go beyond.
Our vision is to provide a space for movement artists to refine their skills, promote longevity by preventing injury through continuing education and physical rehabilitation, and foster collaboration within the dance community.