This Dancer’s Health Guide was published with the support of the Ministry of Culture.
Why a dancer’s health guide?
To better understand what is at stake regarding dancers’ health
To bring dancers basic notions and encourage good habits and a healthy practice
To raise awareness about the risks dancers face during their training and all along their careers
Who is it for?
The guide is a toolkit for dancers, educators, students, employers, choreographers, ballet masters, …
How does it work?
It is concise, and every theme features :
An informative text
Advice and recommendations
The themes:
Daily practice
Organizing a work day and adapting our practice
Warming up
Getting ready
Recovery
Selfcare
Good habits for a healthier lifestyle
Preserving our mental and social health
Building an environment of care
- Focus 1: special advice for female dancers
- Focus 2: special advice for young dancers
- Resources
Professional resources in the CN D
Online resources
Dancers have empirical knowledge from their experience and years of working with their bodies, which they share in an informal manner. This guide is meant to formalize and organize this knowledge and sometimes to correct what we think we know, to propose different tools and resources, share research and identify crucial elements to prevent injuries. The guide is meant to share knowledge and skills to think collectively about the place of health in the dance world, taking into account the diversity of work conditions, dance styles and contexts. When it comes to health and care, we are all responsible – dancers, employers, institutions and practitioners alike. It is crucial to be advised and to become autonomous in our approach to prevention. This guide aims at helping each and every dancer have a better sense of the matter by sharing generic information, concrete actions that can be implemented, resources and recommendations. Its scope is quite broad and encompasses all styles of dance. The specialists who contributed to this guide are experts in their field, coming from various areas of expertise (medicine, paramedical specialties, psychology, sports sciences, humanities, movement analysis) that are combined in this pluridisciplinary guide. Our Dancer’s Health Guide synthesizes different practices and brings readers many perspectives and types of knowledge, since only a transversal approach can foster a collective reflection for the health of dancers.