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A dance physical therapist is a specialized physical therapist that typically has experience in dance, speaks the language of dance, and has a full understanding of the physical and mental demands of being a dancer. A dance PT will be able to guide you through the recovery process of an injury and educate you on specific modifications to do in your dance classes as your injury heals. This means you will not necessarily have to skip classes during recovery.
A dance physical therapist can help dancers in a variety of ways, ranging from strength and conditioning to compliment their dance training, to injury prevention programs, to rehabilitation after an injury. Check out the full list of services I provide here.
Dance technique classes alone are not enough to build the strength needed to perform at your best. That's where strength and conditioning helps. I'm not talking about Progressive Ballet Technique (PBT) or Pilates or floor barre...those have their place and are still beneficial, but they don't introduce enough movements that are different from dance. Muscles need to be challenged with an appropriate load to get stronger. That's where strength training fills the gaps and having a dance physical therapist guide you, can make a world of difference.
YES! Working with a dance physical therapist, even if you are not injured is a fantastic way to build more strength, endurance, flexibility, mobility, motor control, and balance so that you progress more quickly with your dance training. Dance training by itself is not enough to build the strength and endurance needed to prevent injuries. Cross training is crucial for artistic athletes and this is where a dance physical therapist can guide you in the right direction for your needs. I can take the guesswork out of the equation for you!
Typically the first visit with the dance physical therapist take about 45-60 minutes. She will review your medical history and learn more about what your specific goals are with your dancing. She will then take you through some assessments of your strength, range of motion, flexibility, and alignment; followed by looking at your technique specific to the genre of dance that you do the most. This gives the PT a clear picture of all the puzzle pieces that are affecting your dancing and/or an injury you have.
Then the PT will likely teach you a mixture of hands-on manual therapy and exercises to target your needs. You can either have pictures of these exercises emailed to you or have access to them in an app on your phone. The PT will be clear on what goals she has for you and how those will get you to your goals in your dancing.
Be sure to wear something comfortable that you can more in to your first visit. Wear sneakers, but also bring your dance shoes in case the PT needs to assess the fit of your shoes. If you have pointe shoes, bring those as well.
This varies widely depending on what you are seeing the dance PT for. Since each follow-up session is 45-60 minutes, you won't necessarily have to come in as often as other PT clinics. Most clients come once a week or once every other week for a month or two.
Kinetic Wellness is an out-of-network provider and is not associated with any insurances. The current decline in reimbursement rates for physical therapists leads many clinics to see several patients at the same time and patients get less time with the actual doctor of physical therapy.
Insurance should not be in control of your care or dictate how many visits you are allowed. You deserve the highest quality of care. Kinetic Wellness values your full recovery and your time. If you take into account deductibles and co-pays, you may actually pay less by seeing a cash-based physical therapist. Sessions at Kinetic Wellness are one-on-one and longer than sessions at your typical PT clinic. This means you come in less often and many times find the root cause of your problem more quickly, getting you back to what you love more quickly as well.
Health insurance will not cover the strength and conditioning programs that I provide for dancers since it is not a medically necessary service. However, many health insurances will reimburse 50-80% of medically necessary physical therapy services depending on your insurance company.
If you are receiving medically necessary physical therapy services from our doctor of physical therapy, then you can submit for reimbursement from your insurance company. If you'd like to do this, a superbill with the necessary ICD-10 and CPT codes for insurance companies will be provided after services are rendered. The strength and conditioning programs will not be covered by your insurance company.