Surgery for Better Flexibility? Not Worth It.

My artistic director suggested that I get surgery to fix my average flexibility if I want a company contract. Yet he casts me in nice roles even as an apprentice. I don’t know what to do. —Anonymous Getting surgery to improve your flexibility does not work and would be a waste of your time and […]

How to Return to the Stage After a Staph Infection

I’ve been struggling with a staph infection after an FHL repair for tendonitis. It took several months to treat the infection, and it’s left me with pain and stiffness. Will this ever go away? —JR, Hoboken, NJ I’m so sorry that you’ve had complications after surgery. While all surgical procedures have a chance of developing […]

Dance Magazine Award Honoree: Marika Molnar

Since George Balanchine first asked her to care for his dancers in the 1980s, Marika Molnar has helped heal icons as varied as Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Natalia Makarova, Judith Jamison, Twyla Tharp, Chita Rivera and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Some patients call her their guardian angel. “Marika has always answered all my (sometimes ridiculous) questions with […]

Op-Ed: It's Time To Re-Evaluate the Term "Overuse"

Injuries occur in dance frequently. Numerous studies show that at any given time, 40 to 95 percent of the dancers in a given studio or company are injured. This is not news to anyone. But how many times have you been told your injury is because of “overuse”? Doctors use this term often when dancers […]

How To Keep Your Body In Top Shape At Summer Intensives

Few things are most frustrating than arriving at your summer intensive full of excitement—only to get injured, stuck sitting out on the sidelines and missing out on the experience you signed up for. To help you avoid this disappointment, we tapped Daniel Cuttica, D.O., an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon with The Centers for Advanced […]

Cross-Train Like David Hallberg: His Stair Running Regimen

While David Hallberg was recovering from Achilles tendinopathy, one of the treatments that the Australian Ballet rehab team gave him was a stair running exercise. “This is an exercise David needs to continue to do forever, every day,” says AB’s principal physiotherapist Sue Mayes. The basic idea is to run up and down flights of […]