Dr. Robert Tsai, PT, DPT
Having lived the dance life – as a student, college pre-professional, and professional – and now dedicating my career to both the art and science of performing arts physical therapy, I’ve seen and experienced firsthand the challenges college dancers face. Between navigating the transition from high school to college, balancing academic and training demands, or stepping into the professional world in post-grad life, the shifts and changes can be jarring. These stages of transition are pivotal, not just in developing as an artist but in growing into a well-rounded individual ready for the realities of a performance career. It’s also a time when dancers are vulnerable to injury, burnout, and the pressures of an intensely demanding field.
In our current work at DANCE|PREHAB Physical Therapy & Performance, we’ve always focused on longevity—not just in careers, but in finding ways to uplift our personal needs and well-being. This isn’t about quick fixes or short-term gains. It’s about giving dancers the tools, strategies, and principles that will support them for the long haul.
This past January saw a huge a milestone for DANCE|PREHAB – an opportunity to curate a course for dance majors at Chapman University, pulling together nearly six years of educational workshops and knowledge into a collegiate course format.
A huge thank you to Chapman University, Julianne Pedersen, and Robin Kish for making this possible!
What Does Longevity Mean for Dancers?
Longevity in dance is about sustainability in every sense—physical, mental, and emotional. It’s about asking important questions: Who are you as a dancer and as a person? What does future-you need to thrive? For the dancer, research tells us that strength training is important to minimize risk of injury. For the human, many of these same principles carry over to risk-reduction of age-related conditions like osteoporosis, depression, and chronic injury. Nutrition, mental health, and daily well being are all a part of this conversation.
Dance comes with unique demands that go beyond general physical activity. Gonzales et al. (2024) found that when collegiate dancers performed at greater intensities than they prepared for in training, the risk of fatigue, poor mechanics, and injury increased significantly. This is why our approach emphasizes preparing the body to meet—and exceed—the demands of dance performance. More importantly, what does moving athletically feel like?
Learning how to tell the difference.
Understanding the Unique Challenges of College Dancers
College dancers face a perfect storm of challenges:
- High Training Loads: Most dance injuries occur during training rather than performance (Hamilton et al., 1997). Overuse injuries are particularly common, highlighting the need for better training practices, especially in load management.
- Injury Stigma: Many dancers hesitate to report injuries, fearing they’ll lose opportunities, and tend not to report injuries to a medical professional if they perceive a lack of understanding of dance. Magrath et al. (2023) found that dancers often regret pushing through pain instead of addressing it earlier.
- Balancing Demands: Between academics, rehearsals, and personal life, college dancers are under immense pressure. How can we provide spaces to help navigate and manage?
In our spaces, we work to change the narrative around injury and self-care, encouraging dancers to see their health as a proactive investment, not a reactive afterthought.
What Gets Measured, Gets Managed
Unlike regular athletes, dancers often face inconsistent training loads. Pre-professionally and professionally, intensive rehearsal periods might be followed by downtime between performances, leaving the body unprepared for sudden spikes in activity. Gonzales et al. (2024) observed that performing at intensities higher than what dancers are accustomed to in training significantly increases the risk of fatigue and poor movement mechanics.
This inconsistency is compounded by the lack of structured monitoring in dance. Unlike athletes, who often have teams tracking their workload, dancers are left to self-regulate—a skill they are rarely taught.
While exercise and movement is important, a major missing element in pre-professional dancer education is the knowledge of proper tracking, assessment, and management of load to prevent overuse injuries. Over the course of 4 weeks, dancers tracked their wellness scores – sleep quality, sleep hours, mood, fatigue, and muscles soreness. These assessments created opportunities for succinct and purposeful conversations about the elements of proper recovery related to training and learning needs.
Building a Foundation for Longevity
To address these challenges, we use educational frameworks like the R.A.M.P. to apply simple concepts to movement preparation:
- Raise: Elevate heart rate and core temperature.
- Activate: Engage key muscle groups.
- Mobilize: Increase joint range of motion.
- Potentiate: Prepare for high-intensity movements.
Beyond injury “prevention”, creating structures for students to learn from and implement lays a foundation for applicable education and health knowledge. In these frameworks, students are exposed to principles of proper strength training, recovery, and self-management that collegiate dancers can integrate into their practices.
Navigating Careers in Dance
The transition from college to a professional career often comes with financial pressures, irregular work schedules, and the need to stay “performance ready” between contracts. Hopper et al. (2020) describe this as the “off-contract conundrum,” where dancers must juggle multiple roles while maintaining their physical and artistic identity.
In our college sessions, dancers hear from professionals in the commercial, concert, and musical theatre world, as well as dancers who have transitioned into roles such as choreographers, and artistic/rehearsal directors. By hearing from professionals who continue to learn after 10, 15 years in the industry, students learn to aprpeciate first-hand the ever evolving process behind self-care and health for career longevity.
Dancers had the opportunity to hear from:
- Lani Yamanaka (Akram Khan Company)
- Taeko McCarroll (Hamilton: The Musical / Philip Tour)
- Liane Aung (Flockworks)
- Jillian Myers (Janet Jackson, Lala Land, Seaweed Sisters)
At the root of it all, we’ll always encourage dancers to think critically about their career paths. What does success look like for you? How does your idea of success contribute to how you view your training? What steps can you take today to set yourself up for a sustainable future? These spaces for discussion help the dancers build upon and apply concepts of resilience and adaptability they’ll need in an often unpredictable industry.
The Bigger Picture
Longevity isn’t just about the length of a dancer’s career; it’s about creating a fulfilling and sustainable life that will allow you to dance (and do everything else you want!). By embracing growth, resilience, and adaptability, we can ensure dancers thrive both on and off the stage.
Always looking forward to redefining what it means to maintain health for success in dance—one conversation, one dancer, one step at a time.
Dr Robert Tsai PT, DPT is the owner and founder of DANCE|PREHAB Physical Therapy & Performance. Beyond physical therapy, Rob is also a dedicated dance health educator, and has the opportunity to teach in the studio, pre-professional, and collegiate settings. Rob has had the privilege of teaching at The Juilliard School, NYU Tisch, CSU Long Beach, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, School of American Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre Gillespie School, amongst others.
References:
- Gonzales, A. M., Seifert, M., & Stenson, M. C. (2024). Physiological Demands of Competitive Collegiate Dance. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
- Hamilton, L. H., et al. (1997). Factors Contributing to the Attrition Rate in Elite Ballet Students. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science.
- Magrath, J., et al. (2023). Undergraduate Contemporary Dancers’ Perceptions of Pain, Injury, and Fatigue. Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training.
- Hopper, L. S., et al. (2020). Sustaining Dancer Wellbeing Through Independent Professional Dance Careers. Theatre, Dance, and Performance Training.
- Drew, L., & Kulinna, P. (2023). Dance Wellness Pedagogy. Journal of Dance Education.
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