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Introduction To Professional Practice - Assignment

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Introduction To Professional Practice - Assignment

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Health And Wellbeing In The Dance Industry

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Dancers are prone to becoming injured which may risk career longevity, this is because you would need to stop dancing until recovered. A popular injury for dancers is a torn muscle (for me this was a torn hamstring). To lesson the risk of future injuries I apply safe dance practices such as: keeping the studio hazard free, applying the correct technique in lessons, understanding the technical knowledge of what I may be doing, and getting feedback from my teachers.
Good teaching for me is a teacher that insists on safe dance techniques, and who perhaps takes an authoritarian approach to teaching. This is because it is a disciplined teaching style and therefore lessens the chance for students to make mistakes and risk injuring themselves.

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There are many professional services which can help dancers to achieve career longevity (nutritionists, physiotherapists etc). They can help with injuries, improving physical health and mental well being, or by planning dietary and fitness regimes. An example of a dance conservatoire which provides these additional professionals for their dancers is the Elmurst Ballet School. Some of the services they offer are: 'injury management support, rehabilitation from injury, performance enhancement coaching, phlebotomy, sports massage, chiropody, independent student advocates, counselling Services'. (Elmhurst Ballet School. 2018).

Although my university does not yet offer all of these services, it is still beneficial for other schools such as the Elmhurst Ballet School to have these professionals on hand. Especially as we can learn from their research and resources, and put it into our own practice at Shockout Arts to improve our own performance, and increase our long-term career prospects.

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Eating the correct foods is vitally important for recovery and refuelling the body. Food provides the body with energy, this links to the female athlete triad and helps keep bones healthy and menstrual cycles regular. Eating the correct amounts is also important for your body aesthetic, this is because dance genres each have their own ideal body aesthetic, (ballet dancers generally are generally long and slim) and you should not overeat or under eat.

The International Association for Dance Medicine and Science believes the dancers nutrition diet should be 12-15% protein, 20-30% fats and 55% carbohydrates. (IADMS.org. 2016).

This research teaches me that the correct food intake is important for dancers. I now aim to eat healthier options to improve my health, body aesthetic and increase my chance of career longevity. For example I will eat wholemeal pasta rather than white pasta, as energy from it will be released slower and provide my body with energy for a longer period of time. This is important as I will be able to sustain my energy levels longer while dancing. A typical meal I may eat is pictured below:

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One Dance UK is an organisation which aims to provide resources and information for a more diverse dance sector. (One Dance UK. 2018).
One Dance UK have teamed up with People Dancing to show that making dance more popular and available will help the Governments health and well being agenda. By aiming to increase England's participation in dance they are hoping to equalise peoples health and fitness, as this varies greatly between different communities. This benefits aspiring dancers as it promotes the dance world to be equal and helps us to tackle issues such as obesity, mental health, lack of physical exercise and bad diets.

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In my choreography lessons we are regularly required to contract our bodies during movements. When doing a plié exercise in ballet the hamstring and quadriceps muscles are shortening/contracting. It is important to pay attention to the contraction of these muscles as the lower I get, the stronger my muscles will become. This will eventually improve my pirouettes as this strength will help me push up onto demi-point faster to enable me to do more turns.

An isometric contraction holds its shape. In dance a few examples of this which I regularly do are: holding a wall sit, plank and holding an extended leg.

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The skeleton provides your body with structure and protects vital organs such as the heart. The four different types of bones are as follows: long bones (eg. the femur), short bones (eg. the phalanges), flat bones (eg. the scapular), and irregular bones (eg. the coccyx).

Dancing helps bone density by layering protein cells (collagen) this is because 'cells in our skeletal system respond to increased weight loads, or stressors, by increasing bone tissue to protect the body', this is important as it also helps lessen the chance of getting osteoporosis. Having stronger and healthier bones will prevent the chances of injuries, for dancers this means we will have longer and healthier careers. (Diana. 2014).

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This is a diagram which explains and interlinks the effects and benefits of energy levels, bone health and women's menstrual cycles. Showing that good energy levels will help with good bone health and regular cycles resulting in optimal performance, as discussed in my assignment.
(BMJ Journals. 2018).

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The Muscular system creates movement. In dance there is a high amount of physical activity, this results in an increase of mitochondria. This is beneficial as the more mitochondria within our cells results in a higher energy supply allowing our movements to be bigger and stronger. The muscles grow stronger and so does the connective tissue, thus helping to protect us from injury. (Diana. 2014).

Each muscle provides movement from different areas of the body, therefore different muscles support different movements in dance. The stronger the muscle means the more powerful the movement will be. The following video shows examples of movement I may do within classes. It also shows the muscles the movement comes from.
(Allie, Q. 2014).

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Allie, Q (2014). Muscle System Function in Dance. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG7DGTzXn5A [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018]

BMJ Journals. British Journal of Sports Medicine. [online] Available at:https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/48/4/289 [Accessed 19 Nov. 2018]

Diana, (2014). More Reasons Why Dance Is Good For Our Bodies. [online] The Healthy Dancer. Available at: http://thehealthydancer.blogspot.com/2014/02/more-reasons-why-dance-is-good-for-our.html [Accessed 2 Dec. 2018]

Elmhurst Ballet School, (2018). Health and Wellbeing. [online] Available at: https://www.elmhurstdance.co.uk/Health-and-Wellbeing.html [Accessed 11 Dec. 2018]

IADMS.org, (2016). Nutrition Resource Paper 2016. [online] Available at:  https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iadms.org/resource/resmgr/resource_papers/dance-nutrition-2016.pdf [Accessed 15 Dec. 2018]

One Dance UK, (2018). The UK Body for Dance. [online] Available at: https://www.onedanceuk.org/ [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018]