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:

  1. Decrease incidence of injury

  2. Teach a tool that can be used as a warm up or supplemental training any time and any where

  3. Provide time efficient training routine to manage pain and joint dysfunction

  4. Prevent functional loss from chronic pain post- career

  5. 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

  1. Benefits generally seen performing this sequence 2-3x/week within 6 weeks

  2. 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)

  3. For dancers the exercises can be music driven

  4. 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

  5. Designed to be a warm up that includes efficient conditioning and can be used for conditioning as well

  6. 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.

  7. 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

  1. Morning Glory

    • Walking on toes (demi-pointe)

    • Shoulder internal rotation-hands behind back, external rotation hands behind head

  2. Heel-Toe Walking

    • Walking & leading with exaggerated heel strike

    • Shoulder flex-ext/arm swings

  3. Quad stretch

    • DOWN: Parallel – same side hand touch foot

    • BACK: With opposite – opposite side hand touch foot

  4. Knee to Chest

    • Hug knee to chest, standing leg in releve

  5. Hip Flexor Lunge

    • Lunge forward both knees bent & stretch with glute squeeze/post pelvic tilt & arm reach- same arm as back leg

  6. Airplane

    • Leg back in parallel, arms forward with both arms in shoulder flexion

  7. Downward Dog

    • Spine flexion = hand walk = walking downward dog

  8. Monster Walk

    • Hip abduction = wide diagonal walking forward in partial squat

    • Arms behind head

  9. Side Shuffle

    • Step together – FAST chausee

    • DOWN start with right leg

    • BACK start with left leg

  10. Side Lunge

    • Hip adduction = side lunge

    • DOWN: Lead with right leg

    • BACK: Lead with left leg

  11. Hip Out & In

    • Hip rotation- combined motion – arms behind back

    • DOWN: Hip Out & IN

    • BACK: Hip In & out -walking backwards

  12. Attitude walk

    • Toe walking high attitude tap

  13. Parade Rest & Bow

    • Sidewalk/ITB while hands behind back

    • DOWN: Step out lead right

    • BACK: Step out lead left

  14. Over-Over Under

    • Step out and over something & then down and under something

    • DOWN: Lead with right leg

    • BACK: Lead with left leg

  15. Walking lunge with a twist

    • Step into a lunge – arms crossed and rotate spine away from back leg

    • Step into releve

  16. Leg Whips

    • Hip flexion to extension – parallel kick forward, back with knee flexion

    • “Forward, back, forward, step”

  17. Parallel battement

    • Parallel high kick foot flexed – arms in parallel second

  18. Hamstring Lunge

    • Forward deep lunge with rock back into a hamstring stretch with foot flexed

  19. Back Peddle

    • Hip extension = Backwards reach (back peddle with emphasis on hip extension)

  20. Butt Kickers

    • Knee flexion = quad stretch = Kick butt with jogging

  21. High Knees

    • Hip flexion = High knees while jogging

  22. Pylometric Shuffle

    • Hip abduction/adduction = BIG chausse while in a partial squat

    • DOWN: lead with right side

    • BACK: lead with left side

  23. Skater

    • Side lunge hops with arm swing

  24. Carioca

    • Grape vine step crossing foot front then back- quickly

  25. High skip

    • with shoulder flexion and arm reaching upward

Previous
Previous

Coping with COVID-19: Strategies for maximizing mental and emotional health in performing artists

Next
Next

Ask The Dance Docs Episode 1: Tips for injury prevention, heels to pointe shoes, and best supplements for inflammation