If we care about dancers, and I know that everyone who reads this space regularly does, then we must bridge this chasm between dance medicine and strength and conditioning. I think most of the onus is on strength and conditioning professionals to root out misogyny and center the voices of women more, but there is room for improvement in the dance medicine world as well.
Read MoreDancers are told they need to be skinny. They’re told they need to cross train. They’re told they need to do Pilates. They’re told they need to be in good condition. They’re told they need to be strong. But they’re not told how to do so many of these things in a healthy way. When we first started down this road of helping dancers, we were told that dancers “already had the help they needed.” But we knew this to be a lie—because we had taken the time to do the research and to talk to dancers.
Read MoreMy selfish hope would be for the Eurocentric beauty standards that have dominated the traditional ballet world to die. But in the meantime, we know that we can train every dancer in a way that will allow them to build a stronger, more resilient body without the muscle hypertrophy that dance traditionalists fear.
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