Coping with COVID-19: Dance Specific Recommendations
The world has been inundated with the rapid response in trying to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus over the last week. In this time of great fear and concern it has been wonderful to see communication open up between professionals, organizations, and the world nations. I have experienced first hand how the PT’s from large dance organizations have been e-mailing, calling and sharing current updates and thoughts on how to take care of our dancers during this time. As many large dance organizations have decided to take preventative measures and shut down Dr. Davenport and I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss the steps dancers can take to maintain their health and wellness during this time away from the studios. We hope these tips and recommendations will help keep you performance ready for when your companies, colleges, and studios decide it is safe to re-open their doors.
General Health Measures
We know you have heard all the measures about hand washing and close contact jazz hands, interpretative dance, and tap solos are totally acceptable and highly encouraged at this time.
Take things seriously with social distancing
Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, or use hand sanitizer that is at least 60-90% alcohol
Resource- Flatten the curve article
See Blog post for full general health and wellness measures along with studio cleaning guidelines
Number 1 tip- Be a good sick person!
If you are concerned you are sick clean up after yourself
Wear the mask
Do your job to protect the community
Should we shut down?
Many Major companies are cancelling rehearsals and shows at this time and for the next 2-4 weeks
If you are not closing down at this time you should be:
WHO recommendations
6 foot distance between individuals
Small classes 25 people or less
Washing or sanitizing shared surfaces and spaces after after every use
increasing the cleaning of the dance studios and public spaces, this includes:
barres
floors
Stereo equipment
doors
any shared workout equipment (foam rollers, mats, etc)
CBC has information regarding frequently asked questions regarding fighting products for COVID-19
EPA has a list of approved cleaning agents
Please see blog post on website for further information on general health and cleaning measures
How to stay in shape when home
Without rehearsals going on you need to be staying in shape so that you are ready to return to a full day of work.
What I recommend to my dancers is that you want to maintain about 3-4 hours a day of movement between 2 separate workouts
For a professional dancer who is used to a 6-7 hours work day
Cardio should be completed 3x/week for 30 minutes to maintain your current level
You want to focus on maintaining strength in the following areas:
low abdominals
gluts- especially gluteus medius
Adductors
Deep hip rotators
Calves (30 eleves)
foot intrinsics
Boston Ballet Dynamic Stretch (full program listed at the end of show notes)
20-30 minutes of continuous movement, whole body workout
Can be used as cardio, dynamic stretch routine to warm you up for your day
Complete exercises back to back without stopping
Can be done in studio, or hallway of most buildings
Pilates mat classes
Online resources
Pilates Anytime
Pilates Avatar
YouTube
Parasetter
Marika Molnar has classes posted on Pilates anytime using the parasetter and parasetter mini’s
Dance Magazine posted an article on online classes
Self classes
group classes through factime with friend’s
Cardio that can be completed at home
Stairs (avoid touching handrails)/ step
Apartment building gyms or home pools
areas that you can easily clean down
at this time we do not recommend going to large gym facilities or public pools
Circuit’s are a great way to combine strength and cardio together. To add cardio into your current program you can add the following exercises:
Step (2 minute up and down) Jumping Jax
High knees Jump squats
Jump rope Jog/Run in place
If you are adding any kind of jumping or impact into your program please make sure that you are wearing the appropriate footwear.
most home floors are not sprung like your dance floors and you do not want to get injured during this time.
cushioned sneakers or running shoes are best
If you have any questions about adding exercises into your program please reach out to your local PT or send your questions to us!
Visualization
Visualization is well researched in the sports medicine community. It has been shown to:
help sharpen and speed accuracy movement.
By using the mind’s eye like a camera to provide images of the specific choreography, a dancer can more deeply ingrain muscle coordination, strength and control.
By visualizing yourself completing the choreography well it can maintain the cascade of feel-good hormones in an individual’s off-time, contributing to feelings of positivity, confidence and again, help improve the movement itself.
So visualization can be a win-win practice during this time.
Social Contact
Dance is a very social sport/art, make sure that you are still remaining in contact with you company members and friends during this time. Suggestions are
Group chats and phone calls
Scheduling of company time for visualization
Facetime classes with friends and colleagues
Really use technology to your benefit at this time
Wellness Tips
Supplements
Zinc- has been shown to interfere with the molecular process that causes mucus and bacteria to build within the nasal passages.
Research has shown that when zinc was administered within 24 hours of onset of cold-related symptoms, the duration of symptoms was significantly reduced compared to the control group that didn’t supplement with zinc
Vit C- Taking a vitamin C dietary supplement can be an easy and effective way to keep your immune system working efficiently.
Magnesium- see previous show notes
Vit D-see previous show notes
Ginger- natural anti-inflammatory
Turmeric- natural anti-inflammatory
Honey- high quality, raw, or local sources
Things to keep on hand
Mucinex- helps to decrease mucus secretions and ease cough symptoms
Fever reducing medications
Tylenol, Advil, Aspirin
Any other medications you take regularly
Thermometer
Fever of 100.4 considered to have COVID-19 until proven otherwise
If you are running a fever please call you doctor or urgent care center and follow their instructions
if you have shortness of breath (as explained by Dr. Davenport) please seek medical care
Hydration
Clear fluids
make sure your urine is light yellow. Dark urine is a sign of dehydration
Maintain electrolytes in balance
Powders, Nuun tabs, DripDrop
If you are using Gatoraid or Poweraid it’s recommended to dilute by 50%
Pedialyte
Nutrition
Focus on whole foods
We are not in danger of losing power so you can freeze some extra meals to have on hand
Wash your produce
Consider contacting local farmers from farmers markets for farm fresh food
this helps to support the local economy
Sleep
8-9 hours recommended
You may need more sleep if you are feeling sick or stressed out
Plan out your day, just like your company gives you a schedule you may want to think about doing the same
Try to stay on your regular daily schedule (wake-up and bedtimes), don’t go into summer break mode
Write out a daily schedule
Maintain working schedule. Want to keep your day to day schedule as close to your normal work schedule as possible
These things help to keep your body primed and ready to return to work once the buildings re-open
Meditation/ De-stressing practices
Deep breathing
focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth while allowing the belly to rise towards the ceiling and lower towards the spine.
Acupressure mat
15 minutes recommended, an be added to your normal meditation practice
Journey app for live meditation
both group and individual meditations available
Assistance for Freelance Dancers and Arts Community
Practitioners may be available for telemedicine consultation during this time. Call your local provider to find out, or contact us by e-mail at Thedancedocs@gmail.com or through our contact page.
In Health,
Dr. Kat Bower PT
————————————————————————————————————————
Continuous Movement Dynamic Stretching and Conditioning Program for Dancers: A Movement Session
Thank you to Heather Southwick PT, from Boston Ballet
Goals:
Decrease incidence of injury
Teach a tool that can be used as a warm up or supplemental training any time and any where
Provide time efficient training routine to manage pain and joint dysfunction
Prevent functional loss from chronic pain post- career
Prepare all muscles to meet the varied demands of choreography
Notes:
· Based upon original Spine Program 1992 – Lisa Childs, PT NE Baptist Spine Center
· Adapted from Jeff Frankart Movement Recovery System 2015
Dynamic stretches
Time = 15 minutes
Equipment: Studio or hallway – 10 meters (approximately 30 feet) down and back – CAN even be done IN place (larger similar sequence done by prisoners of war)
How: Do all stretches on list in sequence
Benefits generally seen performing this sequence 2-3x/week within 6 weeks
Generally no timed element, but can be done with time varying speed to increase heart rate or change difficulty based on tempo (can be individual)
For dancers the exercises can be music driven
Full program to take 20-45 minutes maximum, can increased conditioning time with pyramid repetitions 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 over 20 minutes
Designed to be a warm up that includes efficient conditioning and can be used for conditioning as well
Can be modified individually or to help meet demands of choreography – add more upper extremity weight bearing when indicated like spiderman or bear crawls, for example.
Can do movement BACKWARDS where appropriate on the way back
Precautions:
Perform exercises within comfort only – do not push through “real” pain
Need to inform PT of any new pain or symptoms before, during or after session
Competitive nature of dancers when performed in a group = address with your group and remind them there is no competition with this sequence.
Dynamic Stretch Exercises while moving x 15 minutes
Morning Glory
Walking on toes (demi-pointe)
Shoulder internal rotation-hands behind back, external rotation hands behind head
Heel-Toe Walking
Walking & leading with exaggerated heel strike
Shoulder flex-ext/arm swings
Quad stretch
DOWN: Parallel – same side hand touch foot
BACK: With opposite – opposite side hand touch foot
Knee to Chest
Hug knee to chest, standing leg in releve
Hip Flexor Lunge
Lunge forward both knees bent & stretch with glute squeeze/post pelvic tilt & arm reach- same arm as back leg
Airplane
Leg back in parallel, arms forward with both arms in shoulder flexion
Downward Dog
Spine flexion = hand walk = walking downward dog
Monster Walk
Hip abduction = wide diagonal walking forward in partial squat
Arms behind head
Side Shuffle
Step together – FAST chausee
DOWN start with right leg
BACK start with left leg
Side Lunge
Hip adduction = side lunge
DOWN: Lead with right leg
BACK: Lead with left leg
Hip Out & In
Hip rotation- combined motion – arms behind back
DOWN: Hip Out & IN
BACK: Hip In & out -walking backwards
Attitude walk
Toe walking high attitude tap
Parade Rest & Bow
Sidewalk/ITB while hands behind back
DOWN: Step out lead right
BACK: Step out lead left
Over-Over Under
Step out and over something & then down and under something
DOWN: Lead with right leg
BACK: Lead with left leg
Walking lunge with a twist
Step into a lunge – arms crossed and rotate spine away from back leg
Step into releve
Leg Whips
Hip flexion to extension – parallel kick forward, back with knee flexion
“Forward, back, forward, step”
Parallel battement
Parallel high kick foot flexed – arms in parallel second
Hamstring Lunge
Forward deep lunge with rock back into a hamstring stretch with foot flexed
Back Peddle
Hip extension = Backwards reach (back peddle with emphasis on hip extension)
Butt Kickers
Knee flexion = quad stretch = Kick butt with jogging
High Knees
Hip flexion = High knees while jogging
Pylometric Shuffle
Hip abduction/adduction = BIG chausse while in a partial squat
DOWN: lead with right side
BACK: lead with left side
Skater
Side lunge hops with arm swing
Carioca
Grape vine step crossing foot front then back- quickly
High skip
with shoulder flexion and arm reaching upward