More than 500 dance medicine and education professionals gather each year, both in person and virtually, to share and learn how to better achieve health for dancers, and health for our communities through dance. The most recent conference, held in Columbus, Ohio, in October 2023, hosted 121 presentations and movement/interactive sessions and 22 poster presentations by practitioners from all over the world. Here is a small sampling of the remarkable breadth of work presented and topics discussed.

Growing up, whenever Bala Devi Chandrashekar was feeling under the weather, her mom would make her jeera rasam, a traditional Indian cumin-and-pepper soup. Chandrashekar did the same for her two sons, and continues to swear by the dish’s healing powers.

Although panic attacks can be incredibly scary and debilitating for anyone, the performance-based nature of dance introduces additional challenges. For Patrick, the intense anxiety that sometimes resulted in panic attacks inhibited her from attending auditions. “I felt, because of my anxiety, I wouldn’t be able to make it through auditions,” she remembers.

Dancers suffering from an injury should consider emotional recovery as well as physical recovery and, if experiencing mental health challenges, seek professional help. According to Mainwaring, finding someone to confide in is key, particularly a psychologist or psychiatrist who has experience working with dancers.

Migraines affect more than a billion people worldwide. Despite their prevalence, migraines can be unpredictable and debilitating, and can present unique challenges, particularly for dancers.

How can studio spaces become more inclusive of neurodivergent dancers? Jennifer Milner, Madeleine’s mother and a dance and Pilates instructor, says that it’s important to create space for individual needs. This can be as simple as respecting when dancers don’t feel comfortable being touched, or when they may be having what Milner calls a “red button day”—when stress, anxiety, or other stressors make corrections and critiques difficult to receive.

Social situations, especially those that are new in some way, can present difficulties for someone with SAD, Hyde says, so attending a new class, joining a company, or attending an audition could be an extra challenge.

What steps can dancers take to care for their bodies now, so they can have both the career of their dreams and a life without pain in the future? Three dance physical therapists share seven ways dancers can care for their bodies to help ensure a better future.